Belief in God

Achilles Sophia achillesz@usa.net
Wed, 23 Sep 1998 00:17:30 -0400 (00906542250, 04173021833163@cfagroup.com) 


>

>>>>> ACHILLES

>>>>> Actually, the vast majority of working scientists last I checked (like

>>>the

>>>>> population at large) were professing xtians.

>>APRIL

>>>Sorry - latest poll shows that only about 40% of scientists are religious in

>>>any sense of the word.  It shows, of course, that the more someone

>>>understands how the universe works, the less she needs an imaginary ghost to

>>>explain its existance.

>>>

>>>April

>>ACHILLES

>>If true that is encouraging. What is your source for it? 

>

>MIKE

>

>If I may ... the newest Skeptic magazine shows a bar graph adapted from a

>study in Nature (April 3, 1997, Lawson and Witham 1997; Genoni, 1997), a

>replication of a survey by James Leuba in 1916.  Leuba's hypothesis (of

>which here there is little detail) was that the more people were educated,

>the less likely they were to believe in God.  The author of the article in

>question (Massimo Pigliucci, A Case Against God) adapts Larson and Witham's

>findings in a bar graph.  It seems to me to be a rough summation, for

>example, the bar for "General Public" was not part of L&W's study. Here are

>a few numbers (based on a sample of 1,000 *scientists*).  The y axis is % of

>believers in God. (scientists are subdivided into subcategories).  The

>numbers read 90% for the general public, just under 40% for scientists, ~40%

>for mathematicians, 30% for biologists, and 20% for physicists.

>

ACHILLES
Well, I am sceptical of it already. 1,000 scientists may be too small a
sample, especially if they analyzed subgroups, and I have no information as
to the randomness of the sample, a concern most surveys do not address
sufficiently. 
Also, mathematicians are not *scientists* strictly speaking, and many other
groups who are scientists are not mentioned... and I am not sure what
precisely constitutes "believing in god" -  it seems likely that the
respondents might have been confused as well, which seriously undermines
confidence in the accuracy of the results. 

Still, I would like to think this is more-or-less accurate, as it would
indicate a sizable shift in the right direction from the days when I was in
school. 

Achilles

"...we are not simply contending in order that my view or that
of yours may prevail, but I presume we ought both of us to be
fighting for the truth..."
from Philebus, the Dialogues of Plato