excreationist

I was wondering if anyone knew of statistics about scientists - according to their discipline (chemistry/biology/astronomy, etc) if possible-
like their belief in a personal God or their belief that God created humans or guided evolution, and if they believe in hell, etc.
I mean apparently about 85% of the U.S. says they are Christian - I wonder if there is a disproportionately low amount of Christian scientists.

Kaina

Nature published a study of religious belief in scientists back in 1998, and there's a write-up about it at  <a href="http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/atheism1.htm" target="_blank">American Atheists.</a>

Here's the important numbers:

DireStraits

The follow-up study reported in "Nature" reveals that the rate of belief is lower than eight decades ago. The latest survey involved 517 members of the National Academy of Sciences; half replied. When queried about belief in "personal god," only 7% responded in the affirmative, while 72.2% expressed "personal disbelief," and 20.8% expressed "doubt or agnosticism." Belief in the concept of human immortality, i.e. life after death declined from the 35.2% measured in 1914 to just 7.9%. 76.7% reject the "human immortality" tenet, compared with 25.4% in 1914, and 23.2% claimed "doubt or agnosticism" on the question, compared with 43.7% in Leuba's original measurement. Again, though, the highest rate of belief in a god was found among mathematicians (14.3%), while the lowest was found among those in the life sciences fields -- only 5.5%.

DS: Not a statistically reliable sample, I would say. But I wonder how many scientists believed that the planets were propelled by angels before Newton. The Gap to put God in is growing smaller and smaller. And the need to postulate God in the first place is commensurate with the size of that Gap.

Valentine Pontifex

The quote you gave is actually unintentionally deceptive. It found that membership of
the NAS (or at least among the membership that
replied) to be extremely low. This was used as a measure of belief amoung top scientists. However the figures for scientists as a whole is much higher, around 40%. Much lower than the general population, but still much higher than the NAS sample. And it has held steady since the early 20th century and not decreased as many had expected it too.

It must also be made clear that some who do not believe in a "personal god" do believe in a "god."

But still it is clear that scientists, especially sucessful scientists, have a much lower level of belief in God than the general population. Those scientists that are Christians (Kenneth Miller,
Keith Miller, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Teilhard de Chardin, etc.) are almost never fundamentalists. About 95% of scientists believe in evolution according to one poll. (And of course by scientists they are including those in non-biological fields.) YECs are almost unheard of.

[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: LordValentine ]</p>

ex-robot

I believe it was Eugenie Scott at ncseweb.org in some article who commented on the lack of a comprehensive study on scientists belief or disbelief in god or something of that nature.

85% huh? That is pretty funny when you split them into mormon christians, protestant christians, catholic christians, and the rest who say they are christians with most sections believing the rest are not really christians!

xr

[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: ex-robot ]</p>

ex-robot

LV, what poll was this and how many were polled? There are plenty of yec scientists. As scigirl has stated many times, most scientists are busy doing their research and not answering polls or commenting on whether they believe in god, creation, or whatever.

xr

lpetrich

Have any of them tried to publish a case for young-earthism in any of the mainstream journals?

cricket

I'd love to see the wording of the question and the population sampled... it's hard to believe 5% of scientists don't believe in evolution.

Maybe pollsters were getting the opinions of lab rats, janitors, & passers-by, as well as scientists.

Malaclypse the Younger

5% is not all that incredible. Somebody has to be at the bottom of the class.

cricket

I thought even the bottom-of-the-barrel scientists accepted evolution, nowadays. Except for the Creation "Scientists".