Occupational atheists?

Question

Aside from scientists, are there professional fields that have a disproportional number of atheists?

Lorreign: Is that what I said? Just a disproportional amount compared to society as a whole.

"A study has shown atheism to be particularly prevalent among scientists, a tendency already quite marked at the beginning of the 20th century, developing into a dominant one during the course of the century. In 1914, James H. Leuba found that 58% of 1,000 randomly selected U.S. natural scientists expressed "disbelief or doubt in the existence of God" (defined as a personal God which interacts directly with human beings). The same study, repeated in 1996, gave a similar percentage of 60.7%; this number is 93% among the members of the National Academy of Sciences. Expressions of positive disbelief rose from 52% to 72%."
Larson, Edward J.; Larry Witham (1998). "Leading scientists still reject God". Nature 394 (6691). Macmillan Publishers Ltd..

Bobo, I don't know. I'm not the type to ask a question just to prove a point. Well, yes, I am, but this isn't one of them.

Link, read the whole thing... "Expressions of positive disbelief rose from 52% to 72%"

Answer 1

I'd guess college and graduate school professors.
Historians maybe.

Answer 2

The stats from the talkorigins states about 5% of scientists are not atheists.

I'm not sure of the actual demographics but about 15-16% of the world is atheist/agnostic and that is lower in the states.

My guess would be that the higher the education level in sciences, engineering and technology, the more likely atheism is to occur. So to relate that to your question, Engineering and Technology fields are likely to have a disproportional number.

Answer 3

I'm a student (university) and the majority of people at my uni are also atheist (virtually everyone in my japanese class last year was, I know because we had to write an essay on religion in Japan....) and there's just generally the concept in the Uk, that if you are intelligent it's about as acceptable to be swayed by religion as it is to believe in the easterbunny....
Also there was some big demonstration ( the demonstrators were for using the building for normal teaching not religious purposes) about what they were going to do with an old part of the building that was used as a chapel in the "olden days". I think it's gonna be renovated and used for normal classes, because it wasn't being used as a chapel.

Answer 4

I live in the UK, and it's pretty much any and every professional field. Religion is obviously a barrier to some vocations if teaching in secular schools, or human rights etc...

Answer 5

I would say architects are more likely to be atheist than most professions. I am an architect that works in a small office, and 7 out of 8 of us are atheists. I don't think this is the norm, but it is nice to be in this kind of environment.

Answer 6

Here are some statistics to back up your claim:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v394/n6691/fig_tab/394313a0_T1.html

I would guess that engineers are a little less likely to believe in God due to the analytical nature of their field and the type of individuals it attracts.

Answer 7

I have a friend who is a psychologist, and her and I were talking about the same subject. She told me that in her observation, many people in the field of mental health are atheists.

Answer 8

Don't know if it counts as a professional field, but many computer technicians and programmers I know are atheists. (With one 58-year-old Baptist exception.)

Answer 9

Any job that encourages free thinking and requires a high level of intelligence.

Answer 10

I'd say Engineering may have - I know other Engineers aside from myself whom are also atheist.