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To: fr_freak

The source I cited quoted a study. Others I’ve seen show up to 30% to 35% of “scientists” believing in God. Obviously highly dependent on definition of “scientist.”

Your criticism of the source is not necessarily appropriate. Yes, the website is leftwing and atheist. Where else are you more likely to find information on this subject? The obvious leaning of a site does not inherently mean their quotation from other sources is necessarily inaccurate or biased.

The article they cited was published in Nature, a respected journal, which has leftist lean, but then do you know of any scientific journals that lean right? Which kind of supports my point.

Your link is irrelevant. We were discussing the actual religiosity of active American scientists, not the historical prevalence of belief in God among dead scientists. Only three of those mentioned even lived into the 20th. All have been dead for more the 50 years now.

Do you understand that my point is not about whether religious belief is compatible with scientific knowledge or practice? Obviously it is, or can be. My point is that most working scientists today are atheists or agnostics, and of the remainder even fewer would be considered relatively orthodix Christians or Jews by most on this site, much less conservative versions thereof.

Haven’t you noticed the recent discussion of scientists blackballed for hiring or tenure for being Christians? Or articles by Christian scientists about how they feel obliged to keep their faith under wraps until they achieve tenure? Doesn’t this indicate to you the overwhelming majority of their colleagues find open belief to be unacceptable?


32 posted on 12/23/2010 5:45:03 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

I think many are misunderstanding your points.

As a Christian I would have to agree with you. Hence the reason so many Christians have turned to homeschooling.

The most destructive setting for our young children and young adults is within the secular, anti-religious school system.


33 posted on 12/23/2010 6:06:04 AM PST by Vegasrugrat
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To: Sherman Logan
Your criticism of the source is not necessarily appropriate. Yes, the website is leftwing and atheist.

Well, sure, why would we question anything that's leftwing and atheist? I can't imagine. Oh, wait - leftwing, atheist, and wiki, even better.

I'm well aware of the bias against religion that exists in academia. However, hard sciences tend to be more conservative than other, softer sciences. Part of our discussion, at least the part that I was getting myself into, was whether there was a difference between the number of religious members of the hardcore sciences and the number of religious members of "other" sciences. The survey cited in your wiki site was strictly of members of the National Academy of Sciences, which may skew left just in its membership, and no mention is made of what constitutes "scientists" in their view. Do they classify anthropologists as scientists right along with physicists? How about "social scientists"? They do not say. So the original question goes unanswered, even with your cite.

By the way, I included the cite listing the famous scientists through the years who were devout in there faith to demonstrate that achieving the pinnacle of scientific thought does not preclude one from believing in God. In fact, often the opposite is true., which is why I asked the original question in the first place.
46 posted on 12/23/2010 12:24:42 PM PST by fr_freak
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