Must scientific professionals be non-theists?

Answer 1

One of the most persuasive letters to the editor I ever read was from an Evangelical Christian biologist who was writing a letter against teaching Intelligent Design in public school science curriculums. He did not seem to have a problem being both religious and a scientist.

Two of the most important theories in biology, which combined explain the heritability of genetic traits and evolution, were religious men. Gregor Mendel was a Catholic monk and Charles Darwin studied to be an Anglican minister at the University of Cambridge.

Religious belief and scientific professionalism are only mutually exclusive for individuals at the extreme on both sides of this false issue of "science vs. God."

Answer 2

Not at all, but for a theist to be a scientist does require one important thing:

They must be able to draw a line between their faith and their knowledge, and to never confuse them.

Let me explain:
Science is based on empiricism, and thus requires evidence and falsifability of all theories. (There must be a possibility of proving a theory incorrect in science. If a theory can explain anything after the fact, then it is not a theory according to the standards of science). So any scientist, in their area of specialization, MUST by definition, be a skeptic who demands evidence prior to belief.

Faith is belief without evidence, or more accurately, belief regardless of evidence. A person who believes in a literal translation of Genesis does so on faith alone, and does so counter to a great deal of evidence that contradicts it. It is fine for a scientist to believe in such a thing, but he/she should NEVER get confused about the distinction between what they take on faith, and what they believe because of the evidence.They need to understand that "god" is not a falsifiable construct (i.e., it is logically impossible to ever prove or disprove god), so it exists in the realm of faith. They also need to understand that science does NOT TAKE ANY POSITION on the existance of a god. Since god is not testable, science simply doesn't concern itself with the idea. That's not to say that science believes that no god exists, just that it's not a question that science can or should try to answer.

I could keep going on about this, but I hope that this gets the basic point across...

Answer 3

No..

Faith and Science are not mutually exclusive. As a geologist I am a deist.. There are forces beyond human understanding. While science attempts and does explain many things, some things will always be outside the ability of knowledge and reason.

While I know the process of earth formation in a physical sense, the "awe" for this process is something spiritual.

Answer 4

Not at all. Many scientists, especially physicists and cosmologists, view themselves as working to decipher and understand the work of God. Unlike those who loudly and constantly pronounce themselves true believers, scientists tend to have the humility to not presume ahead of time which ways God would be allowed or not allowed to work (for example, through a Big Bang or through evolution). Therefore, they try to understand the processes themselves, instead of making an interpretation of an ancient text and imposing that interpretation on one's thinking a priori, the way religious zealots do.

Answer 5

My friend works with scientific professionals. Most of the scientific professionals she knows (and I know) are religious. Very few of them are atheist.

Answer 6

No. Religion really shouldn't matter when it comes to Science. One should be able to actually look for scientific truth and, if found, should be able to present it without the religion getting in the way. If the religion gets in the way, then they aren't honest Scientists to begin with.

Answer 7

Absolutely not. Especially since the existence of God has been scientifically proven.

Answer 8

Trying to figure out the laws of nature, does not mean that you have to deny the Person Who created it.

Answer 9

i know a few who are wonderful scientists and also very spiritual people , although they actually found spirituality through working with science and not the other way around :o)

Answer 10

No, only about 55% of scientists are aethiests. 45% are religious.