Secularity and Science
What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion
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- 30,99 €
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- 30,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Do scientists see conflict between science and faith? Which cultural factors shape the attitudes of scientists toward religion? Can scientists help show us a way to build collaboration between scientific and religious communities, if such collaborations are even possible?
To answer these questions and more, the authors of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion completed the most comprehensive international study of scientists' attitudes toward religion ever undertaken, surveying more than 20,000 scientists and conducting in-depth interviews with over 600 of them. From this wealth of data, the authors extract the real story of the relationship between science and religion in the lives of scientists around the world. The book makes four key claims: there are more religious scientists then we might think; religion and science overlap in scientific work; scientists - even atheist scientists - see spirituality in science; and finally, the idea that religion and science must conflict is primarily an invention of the West. Throughout, the book couples nationally representative survey data with captivating stories of individual scientists, whose experiences highlight these important themes in the data. Secularity and Science leaves inaccurate assumptions about science and religion behind, offering a new, more nuanced understanding of how science and religion interact and how they can be integrated for the common good.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ecklund (Science vs. Religion), chair of social sciences at Rice University, presents the results of a comprehensive study into what scientists really think about religion in this illuminating work. Ecklund and her research associates at Rice University designed two survey methods email and in-person which collected 20,000 and 600 responses, respectively, between 2011 and 2015. While the participants are mainly biologists and physicists, they show great geographic and cultural diversity, including scientists from the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Turkey, India, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Ecklund and her team quote their subjects liberally to illustrate four key conclusions: there are more religious than nonreligious scientists (the authors define "religious" broadly as believing in a higher power); scientists often see spiritual qualities within science; the idea that science and religion are in constant conflict is an invention of the modern West; and that religious practices are often allowed in the scientific workplace outside of the West. Aimed at other scientists, the overtly technical prose will be a huge hurdle for most readers. Academics working in theology and the natural sciences, however, will find a wealth of new information here.
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