Debunking Science Myths

[Illogical Nitpicker]

The "myth" that he's apparently debunking is the notion that with a rise in scientific progress, the rate of belief among scientists will drop. Is this a clever manipulation of facts which clearly show that with the rise of education, belief rates drop significantly?

He's referencing the Larson survey here.

[Ashendant]

Lolwut?

[Of_Tomato]

whatta...

[Illogical Nitpicker]

Sorry, technical glitch.

[OnlyNatural]

What the hell is this guy talking about? That's not clever manipulation, that's just ignoring the facts. And big surprise, he works at McMaster's College of Divinity, an Evangelical Seminary.

Larson's survey in Nature clearly shows that belief in a personal God and immortality has dropped dramatically over this last century, from 30-40% to 7%, and down to 5% for biological scientists.

[Illogical Nitpicker]

To be fair, I think he's referencing the 1996 survey which is summarized in the first paragraphs of the link, and shows no decline in belief rate among all scientists (~40%). The 1998 results show belief rates among elite scientists, which excludes "lesser" scientists such as mathematicians, who have the highest rate of belief.

But here's the problem as I see it. He's claiming there's a popular notion that belief rate among scientists will drop with advances in science. If that's indeed a popular notion, then yes, the survey results debunk that "myth". It remains a constant ~40%

But, really... I think the popular notion is that with an increase in education and intelligence, belief rates will drop. And this is clearly and consistently shown by the survey results, which show a far lower rate of belief than among the general populace, which I think is ~85%.

And notice he gives the wrong year for the original 1914 survey. A small matter, but a factual error nonetheless.

[OnlyNatural]

Right, it's just the 'greater' scientists. It's unfortunate that most people aren't educated and intelligent enough to leave belief behind. At the very least, we need more education out there, for more people.

[Justtristo]

The "myth" that he's apparently debunking is the notion that with a rise in scientific progress, the rate of belief among scientists will drop. Is this a clever manipulation of facts which clearly show that with the rise of education, belief rates drop significantly?

He's referencing the Larson survey here.

Regardless wither or not this is true, the theological challenge science poses to religion still exists. Religions did not change their theology readily to accommodate scientific revelation, it was forced on them by the sheer weight of scientific revelation.

With the track record of science, it is no wonder why a lot of scientists have abandoned belief in god. Indeed these days it is very hard to be religiously orthodox and be studying a number of disciplines (namely psychology, neurology, genetics, biology, cosmology, etc).

[OnlyNatural]

(namely psychology, neurology, genetics, biology, cosmology, etc).

Taking courses at university in psychology, biology, anthropology, and astronomy completely demolished any lingering beliefs I had. Yay for learning about reality.

[Illogical Nitpicker]

It was the pastor at the church I grew up going to who posted this vid on his website, and I've been trying to discuss it with him, but getting nowhere. I'm not formally educated in logic, so I hope someone can tell me if I'm off my nut here.


Fact #1 World faith rate is about 85% (we agree on this)
Fact #2 Scientist faith rate is about 40% (also agreed)
Fact #3 Eliminate lesser sciences such as mathematics and the faith rate drops drastically to 7% (yes, yes)

To me, this clearly demonstrates a measure of incompatibility between science and faith.

However, he points to the fact that the 40% faith rate among all sciences has not changed in 80 years, therefore there is no incompatibility between science and faith.

Am I crazy? Am I missing something?