Survey: One in three scientists believe in God

About one out of every three scientists in the United States professed believing in God, a recent survey found.

That figure is strikingly lower than the proportion of the general American public that say they believe in God (83 per cent), according to the report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

However, a Christian biochemist after examining the report said the comparably small number of scientists who believe in God is nothing to be alarmed over.

Dr Fazale Rana, vice president of research and apologetics at Reasons to Believe ministry, said the percentage of American scientists who believe in God has remained constant for more than three-quarters of a century.

In the early 1920s, he explained, there was a similar survey conducted that found a similar proportion of scientists who believe in God.

“I see a lot of reason to be very encouraged by these results,” said Rana, who has a PhD in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry and was a senior scientist in product development for Procter & Gamble, to The Christian Post on Wednesday.

“The take home message is that if science and religion are incompatible then there is no way we would still see 30-40 per cent of scientists acknowledge there is a God or higher power behind everything,” he contended.

Besides asking about belief in God, the survey of more than 2,533 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) also asked about belief in a higher power. Eighteen per cent of scientists said they believe in a higher power or universal spirit, while 12 per cent of the public said so.

But the religious belief of the public and scientists once again diverged in the category of not believing in God or a higher power. Only four per cent of the public said they did not believe in either, while a major portion of scientists (41 per cent) said they did not believe in God or any other higher power.

Rana, whose ministry’s mission is to show that science and faith is compatible, said the discrepancy between scientists and the public on belief in God or a higher power is rooted in the nature of science itself.

The discipline of science calls for finding naturalistic explanations for phenomenon and operates on the philosophies of methodological naturalism and bench top atheism in which God is excluded.

For bench top atheism, Rana explained, even if a scientist believes in God he has to act as if he does not while engaging in science. And under methodological naturalism, a scientist is forced to explain events through naturalism.

“What I found encouraging is seeing such a high belief in scientists in the face of philosophical pressure,” Rana commented.

Other interesting findings in the Pew report include huge differences between scientists who believe humans have evolved over time (87 per cent) and Americans in general who hold this belief (32 per cent); a large gap between the percentage of scientists who say the earth is warming because of human activity (84 per cent) and the percentage of the public who agree with this statement (49 per cent); and the proportion of scientists who favour federal funding for embryonic stem cell research (93 per cent) and the general public who support such research (58 per cent).

Based in California, Reasons to Believe ministry seeks to show that science and faith are “allies, not enemies”. The ministry’s leaders help seekers and Christians to worship the Creator without fear of science through analysing the latest scientific research publications, writing books and magazine articles, speaking at events, and doing media interviews.