Hi
On Fri, 27 Aug 1999, Miguel Roig wrote:
> At 12:57 AM 8/27/99 -0500, you [Jim Clark] wrote:
> >Who is Knight Dunlap and what is the source of this (excellent)
> >quote? It reminds me of one attributed to Sagan (I think) in the
> >Scientific American article on religion and science ... something
> >to the effect that one cannot do science during the week and
> >attend church on Sundays.
> That Scientific American issue on science and religion sounds
> like good reading. I should get it. In any event, keeping in
> mind the finding that 40% of scientists believe in God, Is
> there an implication or concern in Sagan's writings, or the
> writings of some other prominent scientist, that those who
> attend church or hold spiritual beliefs (e.g., belief in God)
> might not produce good science?
The figure is 40% for run-of-the-mill scientists. If you select
elite scientists (e.g., membership in NAS), then the figure
drops to 10% or less. The figure also varies by discipline
(e.g., lower for biologists than for mathematicians).
There could be at least two concerns because of the association.
First, it might be that many people are being kept out of or
leaving scientific fields because their religious beliefs are
somehow incompatible with doing science. Second, there could be
some concern that, given one does choose science, perhaps the
quality of that science suffers from religiosity. That could be
one explanation for the difference between normal and elite
scientists, for example. Any relationship between religiosity
and quality of science (presuming we could measure both
adequately) _within_ scientists would suffer from the same kind
of range problems that plague GRE research.
As for the Scientific American article, my reaction to it is
mixed. It accurately describes some pretty robust relationships,
but overall seems to find the separate domains idea (a la Gould)
congenial. This contradiction (to me) might be explained by the
fact that the authors seem to be religious according to an
endnote and they are not themselves scientists.
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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