In spite of the beginning, what’s in a Word? Well… bad news for some…

(Thanks to research by OKCupid with more than 3.5 million members)

What do scientists really believe about god?

We often hear claims that science and religious belief are compatible because they are concerned about different questions and different ways to know. Even the NSCE (National Center for Science Education) supports this canard. There is also a general consensus that many scientists themselves are often as religious as the general public, so we are left with a sense that those who suggest that science and religion are incompatible say as much probably because of some assumed bias.  Thankfully from Elaine Howard Ecklund’s new book Science vs. Relgion: What Scientists Really Think brought to us by Jason Rosenhouse we now have a much better idea of what percentage of various scientists actually believe about central religious claims about the veracity of god compared directly to the public percentage:

Asked about their beliefs in God, 34% chose “I don’t believe in God,” while 30% chose, “I do not know if there is a God, and there is no way to find out.” That’s 64% who are atheist or agnostic, as compared to just 6% of the general public.

An additional 8% opted for, “I believe in a higher power, but it is not God.” That makes 72% of scientists who are explicitly non-theistic in their religious views (compared to 16% of the public generally.) Pretty stark.

From the other side, it is just 9% of scientists (compared to 63% of the public), who chose, “I have no doubts about God’s existence.” An additional 14% of scientists chose, “I have some doubts, but I believe in God.” Thus, it is just 25% of scientists who will confidently assert their belief in God (80% of the general public.)

For completeness, the final option was “I believe in God sometimes.” That was chosen by 5% of scientists and 4% of the public. Make of it what you will.

Also stark is the data on religious affiliations. Here we find that 53% of scientists claim no religious affiliation at all. I was very surprised by that number, since religious affiliation is as much about cultural identity as it is about specific beliefs. For example, when asked for my religious affiliation I always say that I am Jewish even though I am also an atheist. (Apparently I have this attitude in common with a lot of Jewish scientists, fully 75% of whom are atheists according to Ecklund’s data.) This tells me that for more than half of scienitsts none of the traditional religions play any role at all in their identity. It was only 16% of the public that claims no religious affiliation.

From the other side, Evangelical Protestantism is the religion of 28% of the public, but only 2% of scientists.

Again, pretty stark. Religion is poorly represented among scientists, and where it appears it is of a vastly more liberal sort than among of the public generally. It is beyond me how anyone can look at all of these numbers and persist in denying that there is a conflict between science and religion. Of course there is a conflict.

How can Jason reach this conclusion? Because the numbers – regardless of whether or not they are slightly higher or lower – are so starkly and dramatically different. The interesting question is why? I think it is because the theological assertions that back up religious truth claims are highly suspect so the answers they provide are necessarily poorly informed by anything more than the assertions themselves. In comparison, most people who work in a scientific field must inform their conclusions with something significantly more substantive than “because I believe it to be true” so they recognize what a weak conclusion looks like and have come across no compelling reasons or evidence to think of these religious answers are worth believing.

Trouble in (before) paradise?

• Of the 1,050 pastors we surveyed, every one of them had a close associate or seminary buddy who had left the ministry because of burnout, conflict in their church, or from a moral failure.

• 90% of pastors stated they are frequently fatigued, and worn out on a weekly and even daily basis (did not say burned out).

• 89% of the pastors we surveyed also considered leaving the ministry at one time. 57% said they would leave if they had a better place to go—including secular work.

• 81% of the pastors said there was no regular discipleship program or effective effort of mentoring their people or teaching them to deepen their Christian formation at their church (remember these are the Reformed and Evangelical—not the mainline pastors!). 

• 77% of the pastors we surveyed felt they did not have a good marriage!

• 75% of the pastors we surveyed felt they were unqualified and/or poorly trained by their seminaries to lead and manage the church or to counsel others. This left them disheartened in their ability to pastor.

• 72% of the pastors we surveyed stated that they only studied the Bible when they were preparing for sermons or lessons. This left only 38% who read the Bible for devotions and personal study.

• 71% of pastors stated they were burned out, and they battle depression beyond fatigue on a weekly and even a daily basis.

• 38% of pastors said they were divorced or currently in a divorce process.

• 30% said they had either been in an ongoing affair or a one-time sexual encounter with a parishioner. (This and the previous statistic raises an interesting reflection on what Family Values look like to those in the ministry – tildeb.)

• 26% of pastors said they regularly had personal devotions and felt they were adequately fed spirituality.

• 23% of the pastors we surveyed said they felt happy and content on a regular basis with who they are in Christ, in their church, and in their home!

• Of the pastors surveyed, they stated that a mean (average) of only 25% of their church’s membership attended a Bible Study or small group at least twice a month. The range was 11% to a max of 40%, a median (the center figure of the table) of 18% and a mode (most frequent number) of 20%. This means over 75% of the people who are at a “good” evangelical church do not go to a Bible Study or small group (that is not just a book or curriculum study, but where the Bible is opened and read, as well as studied). (I suspect these numbers are actually lower in most evangelical and Reformed churches because the pastors that come to conferences tend to be more interested in the teaching and care of their flock than those who usually do not attend.)

From the article Statistics on Pastors over at the Schaeffer Institute.

These stats line up nicely with Daniel Dennett’s latest work about preachers who are not believers (pdf here). And their numbers are growing . What is striking in this compilation of stats is that more than half would leave if they could. Three quarters are fighting depression and nine in ten can’t cope with the challenge of ministry. But why? If religious belief added some measurable quality of life and comfort as we have been led to believe, then these numbers should be strikingly different by those who champion it. But as I have long suspected, the show-and-tell of religion are quite different: we see the show of happy and well-adjusted people who pretend religious belief is a marvelous way to live – even a necessary element to living morally well – but underneath that facade we find a very different story.

What percentage of philosophers are theists?

David Bourget and David Chalmers have released the results of the largest survey of professional philosophers ever conducted. Some interesting results:

72.8% atheism
14.6% theism
12.5% other

49.8% naturalism
25.8% non-naturalism (but not necessarily supernaturalism)
24.2% other

Of course, quite what any of this shows re the truth of any of these beliefs, if anything, can be debated….