Scientists and Belief - More Up To Date Survey

[Confused Ape]

I was googling for information about what scientists believe and found that a survey had been done in 2009.

Scientists And Belief

A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public.1 Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.

Even though scientists as a group are less religious than the general population, that's still a lot of scientists who believe in God or a universal spirit or higher power.

What I find really interesting is the following -

The Pew Research Center poll of scientists also found that levels of religious faith vary according to scientific specialty and age. For instance, chemists are more likely to believe in God (41%) than those who work in the other major scientific fields. Meanwhile, younger scientists (ages 18-34) are more likely to believe in God or a higher power than those who are older.

Scroll down the page to the table showing the results for scientists in different fields.

Biological and Medical - 32% believe in God while 19% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Chemistry - 41% believe in God while 14% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Geosciences - 30% believe in God and 20% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Physics and Astronomy - 29% believe in God and 14% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Why does belief vary between scientific fields? I've been looking to see if anyone had managed to figure it out but haven't had any success so far.

This survey only covered scientists who belong to a particular organisation so we don't know what the results would be if every scientist in the world took part in a similar survey.

[heathendegenerate]

chemists are high as shit.

[Confused Ape]

chemists are high as shit.

LOL. Maybe some of them are researching chemicals with interesting properties.

Seriously, though, I've been very interested in scientists and their beliefs or lack of them since I belonged to another atheist forum. A group of enthusiastic atheists there maintained that religion would come to an end if everyone was made to understand science. When I looked into it I discovered that it wouldn't.

Nobody's figured out why our species is prone to religious belief but whatever the answer is, understanding science doesn't automatically make people immune.

[MindForgedManacle]

73% of philosophers are or lean toward atheism, a further 13% are other non-theistic positions, leaving only 14% of philosophers as some kind of theist.

And actually, there are very good looks into why our species has religious beliefs. Two books I'd recommend on this are cognitive scientist and philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" and science historian and psychologist Michael Shermer's "The Believing Brain". There's probably some good stuff from anthropology as well, I'm just not familiar with it.

[Confused Ape]

73% of philosophers are or lean toward atheism, a further 13% are other non-theistic positions, leaving only 14% of philosophers as some kind of theist.

Does that mean philosophy turns most philosophers into atheists or that it attracts more atheists than believers?

And actually, there are very good looks into why our species has religious beliefs. Two books I'd recommend on this are cognitive scientist and philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" and science historian and psychologist Michael Shermer's "The Believing Brain". There's probably some good stuff from anthropology as well, I'm just not familiar with it.

There's also that branch of neuroscience labelled neurotheology which I find particularly interesting. I have the kind of brain which produces odd, subjective experiences and I wonder why so many human brains do this.

Eastern mysticism seems to be related to the experiences of this neuroanatomist who explains what happened when she had a stroke.





It doesn't explain the results of the American Association for the Advancement of Science survey, though. Why do chemists who believe in God outnumber physicists and astronomers who believe in God? It also doesn't explain why there's an equal percentage in these fields when it comes to belief in a universal spirit or higher power.