The question of religious belief among U.S. scientists has been debated since early in the century. Our latest survey finds that, among the top natural scientists, disbelief is greater than ever \u2014 almost total.<\/p>\n
Research on this topic began with the eminent U.S. psychologist James H. Leuba and his landmark survey of 1914. He found that 58% of 1,000 randomly selected U.S. scientists expressed disbelief or doubt in the existence of God, and that this figure rose to near 70% among the 400 \u201cgreater\u201d scientists within his sample [1]. Leuba repeated his survey in somewhat different form 20 years later, and found that these percentages had increased to 67 and 85, respectively [2].<\/p>\n
In 1996, we repeated Leuba\u2019s 1914 survey and reported our results in Nature [3]. We found little change from 1914 for American scientists generally, with 60.7% expressing disbelief or doubt. This year, we closely imitated the second phase of Leuba\u2019s 1914 survey to gauge belief among \u201cgreater\u201d scientists, and find the rate of belief lower than ever \u2014 a mere 7% of respondents.<\/p>\n
Leuba attributed the higher level of disbelief and doubt among \u201cgreater\u201d scientists to their \u201csuperior knowledge, understanding, and experience\u201d [3]. Similarly, Oxford University scientist Peter Atkins commented on our 1996 survey, \u201cYou clearly can be a scientist and have religious beliefs. But I don\u2019t think you can be a real scientist in the deepest sense of the word because they are such alien categories of knowledge.\u201d [4] Such comments led us to repeat the second phase of Leuba\u2019s study for an up-to-date comparison of the religious beliefs of \u201cgreater\u201d and \u201clesser\u201d scientists.<\/p>\n
Our chosen group of \u201cgreater\u201d scientists were members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Our survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality). Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys:<\/p>\n
Belief in personal God 1914 1933 1998
\n Personal belief 27.7 15 7.0
\n Personal disbelief 52.7 68 72.2
\n Doubt or agnosticism 20.9 17 20.8<\/p>\n
Belief in human immortality 1914 1933 1998
\n Personal belief 35.2 18 7.9
\n Personal disbelief 25.4 53 76.7
\n Doubt or agnosticism 43.7 29 23.3<\/p>\n
Figures are percentages.<\/p>\n
Repeating Leuba\u2019s methods presented challenges. For his general surveys, he randomly polled scientists listed in the standard reference work, American Men of Science (AMS). We used the current edition. In Leuba\u2019s day, AMS editors designated the \u201cgreat scientists\u201d among their entries, and Leuba used these to identify his \u201cgreater\u201d scientists [1,2]. The AMS no longer makes these designations, so we chose as our \u201cgreater\u201d scientists members of the NAS, a status that once assured designation as \u201cgreat scientists\u201d in the early AMS. Our method surely generated a more elite sample than Leuba\u2019s method, which (if the quoted comments by Leuba and Atkins are correct) may explain the extremely low level of belief among our respondents.<\/p>\n
For the 1914 survey, Leuba mailed his brief questionnaire to a random sample of 400 AMS \u201cgreat scientists\u201d. It asked about the respondent\u2019s belief in \u201ca God in intellectual and affective communication with humankind\u201d and in \u201cpersonal immortality\u201d. Respondents had the options of affirming belief, disbelief or agnosticism on each question [1]. Our survey contained precisely the same questions and also asked for anonymous responses.<\/p>\n
Leuba sent the 1914 survey to 400 \u201cbiological and physical scientists\u201d, with the latter group including mathematicians as well as physicists and astronomers [1]. Because of the relatively small size of NAS membership, we sent our survey to all 517 NAS members in those core disciplines. Leuba obtained a return rate of about 70% in 1914 and more than 75% in 1933 whereas our returns stood at about 60% for the 1996 survey and slightly over 50% from NAS members [1,2].<\/p>\n
As we compiled our findings, the NAS issued a booklet encouraging the teaching of evolution in public schools, an ongoing source of friction between the scientific community and some conservative Christians in the United States. The booklet assures readers, \u201cWhether God exists or not is a question about which science is neutral\u201d[5]. NAS president Bruce Alberts said: \u201cThere are many very outstanding members of this academy who are very religious people, people who believe in evolution, many of them biologists.\u201d Our survey suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n
Edward J. Larson
\nDepartment of History, University of Georgia,
\nAthens, Georgia 30602-6012, USA
\ne-mail:edlarson@uga.edu<\/p>\n
Larry Witham
\n3816 Lansdale Court, Burtonsville,
\nMaryland 20866, USA<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Leuba, J. H. The Belief in God and Immortality: A Psychological, Anthropological and Statistical Study (Sherman, French & Co., Boston, 1916).<\/p>\n
Leuba, J. H. Harper\u2019s Magazine 169, 291-300 (1934).<\/p>\n
Larson, E. J. & Witham, L. Nature 386, 435-436 (1997).<\/p>\n
Highfield, R. The Daily Telegraph 3 April, p. 4 (1997).<\/p>\n
National Academy of Sciences Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (Natl Acad. Press, Washington DC, 1998).<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Nature , Vol. 394, No. 6691, p. 313 (1998) \u00a9 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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