Are a lot of scientists athiests or agnostic?

Question

It seems that the more scientists learn about the universe, and life and things in general, they are realizing that most religious beliefs (and they are just that, beliefs) aren't quite as believable as religious people think they are. Im sure there are lots.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Steve
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/3541_project_steve_2_16_2003.asp
Project Steve was not actually directed at religion but at support for the theory of evolution.
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The answer is yes. When you get to the top levels it becomes almost all atheists.
A letter published in Nature in 1998 reported a survey suggesting that belief in a personal God or afterlife was at an all-time low among the members of the U.S. National Academy of Science, only 7.0% of whom believed in a personal God as compared to more than 85% of the general U.S. population.[95] In the same year Frank Sulloway of MIT and Michael Shermer of California State University conducted a study which found in their polling sample of "credentialed" U.S. adults (12% had Ph.Ds and 62% were college graduates) 64% believed in God, and there was a correlation indicating that religious conviction diminished with education level.[96] Such an inverse correlation between religiosity and intelligence has been found by 39 studies carried out between 1927 and 2002, according to an article in Mensa Magazine.[97] These findings broadly concur with a 1958 statistical meta-analysis from Professor Michael Argyle of Oxford University. He analyzed seven research studies that had investigated correlation between attitude to religion and measured intelligence among school and college students from the U.S. Although a clear negative correlation was found, the analysis did not identify causality but noted that factors such as authoritarian family background and social class may also have played a part.[98]

Answer 2

I don't think learning about science necessarily makes one atheistic. I think it a scientist just learns not to confuse science and religion. They are both good ways of thinking, and both are important, it's just that one doesn't substitute for another.

When Galileo asserted that the sun revolved around the Sun, the Catholic church made him recant his statement. They nearly burned him at the stake. Because they were afraid that if people knew the earth wasn't the center of the universe they would lose their faith. Within 100 years or so, though, the evidence was so strong that they could no longer deny it. Nobody today thinks an astronomer has to be atheistic to believe the earth revolves around the sun! Today we're having the same argument, but today it's about evolution and maybe global warming. In another 50 or 100 years it might be something else.

Answer 3

There are many scientists who are atheists, but there are also many who believe in God and who practice religion, some Christian and some other religions. Science and belief in God are not mutually exclusive. It is only science and belief in ancient creation myths (and there are many), and in mythologies about dragons, demons, floods, and sky-gods that are mutually exclusive.

If one believes, for example, that the Earth is 6,000 years old because that is what they think the Bible says, and disregards all evidence to the contrary, then that person is not a scientist (regardless of how many PhD's he or she has). If one believes that God instantly created a man from a pile of dust, then later took a rib from him to create a woman, despite all evidence to the contrary, again that person is not a scientist even if he/she claims to be.

Science deals in verifiable facts and logical deductions based on observation of quantifiable physical evidence (ie, theories). The Bible may be believed, respected and followed by a scientist who understands it as metaphore. But a strict, literal belief in the Biblical creation is not compatible with true science or scientific thought.

ADDED: It is interesting that people on both sides of this issue, and some who don't take sides, quote statistics that are completely incompatible with each other. They cannot all be true. It is revealing that none of them quotes actual studies or surveys, each just says "xx% of scientists are ___." That is an example of how Christians, often well meaning, and non-Christians too, purposely or ignorantly falsify facts to support their own beliefs. It is one reason various nonsense is believed by so many people, particularly those inclined to a particular belief anyway (ie, Christians and creationism). Pick up any "scientific" book written by a Christian for example, or listen to any Christian minister attacking evolution, and you will find many, many examples in it of false logic, misrepresentation of facts, and downright lies. Guaranteed.

Answer 4

Most people who have answered this question have no idea what they're talking about. Atheists: we don't believe in any god. Other than that, we can believe in anything like science, ghosts, etc. Just NO GODS. Agnostics: generally aren't sure if there is a god or not, and do not have a religion, nor know what to believe. They can lean more towards Atheism or Theism, but other than that, they can believe whatever they want. They aren't religions, so you're right not to use that word. We have no doctrines, churches, religious texts, etc. We're completely free to believe what we want, as long as it fits the one guideline: either you're sure a god doesn't exist, or you have no idea.

Answer 5

Numerous studies have shown that the vast majority of scientists are indeed Atheist or Agnostic. The more eminent the scientist, the less likely he/she is to believe in a god.

Answer 6

Lets ask the man himself:

Albert Einstein to The Saturday Evening Post, 1929:

To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?

"As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."

Have you read Emil Ludwig's book on Jesus?

"Emil Ludwig's Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot."

You accept the historical Jesus?

"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."

Answer 7

A fair amount are religious. Ten percent of the general population is atheist / agnostic, but more than half of scientists are.

Answer 8

Steve your US must be on a different planet than mine. The numbers are almost exactly the opposite as the rest of the population. Many many studies have been done to prove that for the most part the more education you have the less use you have for religion.

Answer 9

The last time a survey was taken, about 60% of scientists said they didn't believe in a personal God.

Answer 10

In my mind a scientist is someone who forms their opinions based on evidence, experiment, reason and logic. By these standards a Christian/Muslim/whateverist Scientist is an oxymoron. Religous "scientists" are more properly titled philosophers.