So You Think All Scientists are Atheists? Guess Again!

Michael Ashcraft, Mark Ellis : Feb 18, 2016
God Reports

Science has not dislodged belief in God, and the number of theistic scientists is "impressively high," according to the New York Times.

A full 40 percent of scientists believe in a personal God and afterlife, according to a 1997 study. (Photo: Edward Larson/via God Reports)

"Although the suggestion 80 years ago that four in 10 scientists did not believe in God or an afterlife was astounding to contemporaries, the fact that so many scientists believe in God today is equally surprising," said study organizers Edward Larson and Larry Witham, of the University of Georgia, in the journal Nature.

The duo replicated a study from 80 years prior conducted by James Leuba that shocked America at a time when faith enjoyed wide acceptance. He found that four of 10 scientists didn’t believe in God.

Leuba "predicted that more and more scientists would give up their belief in God, as scientific knowledge replaced what he considered to be superstition," writes the National Center for Science Education in an article "Do Scientists Really Reject God?"

Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennet—leaders of the New Atheist movement—have enjoyed much more media attention than believing scientists. It gives the mistaken impression that science and faith are irreconcilable.

Leuba would be disappointed. The 1997 iteration of his poll found the percentage of faith-holding scientists remained constant through 80 years of scientific and technological advance. Science has not dislodged belief in God, and the number of theistic scientists is "impressively high," according to the New York Times.

"The results also indicate that, while science and religion often are depicted as irreconcilable antagonists, each a claimant to the throne of truth, many scientists see no contradiction between a quest to understand the laws of nature, and a belief in a higher deity...

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