Why are scientists more likely to be atheists?
I'd especially be interested in the views of theists on this matter.
Stats:
"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%. (See also Relationship between religion and science.)"
(I think the idea is that members of the National Academy of Sciences are likely to be better scientists and more intelligent. It's an interesting finding to itself, any way)
The survey referred to can be found here: Nature, "Leading scientists still reject God"* July 23, 1998 [I can't yet post URLs, but possibly you can find it with google. If not, get back to me in a while . ] Although this is a Nature article, I think it's hosted by a different site and so should be accessable to those without uni subscriptions. Lemme know if not though).
Contrast with findings for the U.S. general population:
"A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that in the United States, 12% of people under 30 and 6% of people over 30 could be characterized as non-religious.[7] A 2005 poll by AP/Ipsos surveyed ten countries. Of the developed nations, people in the United States had most certainty about the existence of God or a higher power (2% atheist, 4% agnostic)"
Most of the data here is from the wiki page Demographics of atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [I can't post the URL, but if you search wikipedia for it, you should get it] but all the data is backed up by links to the original reports.
I'd especially be interested in the views of theists on this matter.
Stats:
"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%. (See also Relationship between religion and science.)"
(I think the idea is that members of the National Academy of Sciences are likely to be better scientists and more intelligent. It's an interesting finding to itself, any way)
The survey referred to can be found here: Nature, "Leading scientists still reject God"* July 23, 1998 [I can't yet post URLs, but possibly you can find it with google. If not, get back to me in a while . ] Although this is a Nature article, I think it's hosted by a different site and so should be accessable to those without uni subscriptions. Lemme know if not though).
(Couldn't get proper indentation so I've coloured the data from the 3 diff. years)Table 1 Comparison of survey answers among "greater" scientists
Belief in personal God 1914 1933 1998
Personal belief 27.7 15 7.0
Personal disbelief 52.7 68 72.2
Doubt or agnosticism 20.9 17 20.8
Belief in human immortality 1914 1933 1998
Personal belief 35.2 18 7.9
Personal disbelief 25.4 53 76.7
Doubt or agnosticism 43.7 29 23.3
Figures are percentages.
Contrast with findings for the U.S. general population:
"A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that in the United States, 12% of people under 30 and 6% of people over 30 could be characterized as non-religious.[7] A 2005 poll by AP/Ipsos surveyed ten countries. Of the developed nations, people in the United States had most certainty about the existence of God or a higher power (2% atheist, 4% agnostic)"
Most of the data here is from the wiki page Demographics of atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [I can't post the URL, but if you search wikipedia for it, you should get it] but all the data is backed up by links to the original reports.