A proper survey conducted by a reputable publication actually asking foremost scientists what they believe and with percentages.
"How do you explain the fact that intelligent people believe in gods?
This is absolutely untrue especially among scientists.
Recent demographic surveys of the United States of America indicate that as of the year 2000, 14% of Americans did not consider religion to be an important part of their lives. This figure is up from 10% in 1990. Only 0.5% of the population at large responded that they were atheist. However, this number skyrockets when you switch the focus to scientist and rises even higher when one considers “greater” scientists.
In 1914, psychologist James H. Leuba conducted a landmark survey of belief among scientist. Leuba found that the majority of a randomly selected scientist doubted the existence of god. When he narrowed his sample to the “greater” scientists, doubt rose further. He repeated the survey 20 years later and found that the percentages of those doubting the existence of god had risen further.
In 1998, the publication Nature repeated Leuba’s survey. The results are summarized in the table below. For purposes of the modern survey, “greater” scientists were defined as members of the National Academy of Science.
Year
1914 1933 1998
Atheist 52 % 68 % 72 %
Agnostic 21 % 17 % 21 %
Believer 27 % 15 % 7 %
Doubt is highest among NAS biologist at 95%. Physicists come in a close second at 93% while mathematicians are at the low end with 86% either atheists or agnostics.
In addition, most well known and widely published scientists have stated publicly that they are either atheists or agnostics including Noam Chomsky, Steven Hawking, Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson and the late scientists Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Feynman. Surveying the history of physics, I can only find one notable name of an individual who believed in the existence of god and was a regular attendee of a religion, namely James Clerk Maxwell who born, lived and died a Scottish Presbyterian."
See Leading Scientists still reject God. Nature, Vol 394, July 23 1998, www.nature.com/nature.
I don't go to mythical places with strange men.
-- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
A proper survey conducted by a reputable publication actually asking foremost scientists what they believe and with percentages.
"How do you explain the fact that intelligent people believe in gods?
This is absolutely untrue especially among scientists.
Recent demographic surveys of the United States of America indicate that as of the year 2000, 14% of Americans did not consider religion to be an important part of their lives. This figure is up from 10% in 1990. Only 0.5% of the population at large responded that they were atheist. However, this number skyrockets when you switch the focus to scientist and rises even higher when one considers “greater” scientists.
In 1914, psychologist James H. Leuba conducted a landmark survey of belief among scientist. Leuba found that the majority of a randomly selected scientist doubted the existence of god. When he narrowed his sample to the “greater” scientists, doubt rose further. He repeated the survey 20 years later and found that the percentages of those doubting the existence of god had risen further.
In 1998, the publication Nature repeated Leuba’s survey. The results are summarized in the table below. For purposes of the modern survey, “greater” scientists were defined as members of the National Academy of Science.
Year
1914 1933 1998
Atheist 52 % 68 % 72 %
Agnostic 21 % 17 % 21 %
Believer 27 % 15 % 7 %
Doubt is highest among NAS biologist at 95%. Physicists come in a close second at 93% while mathematicians are at the low end with 86% either atheists or agnostics.
In addition, most well known and widely published scientists have stated publicly that they are either atheists or agnostics including Noam Chomsky, Steven Hawking, Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson and the late scientists Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Feynman. Surveying the history of physics, I can only find one notable name of an individual who believed in the existence of god and was a regular attendee of a religion, namely James Clerk Maxwell who born, lived and died a Scottish Presbyterian."
See Leading Scientists still reject God. Nature, Vol 394, July 23 1998, www.nature.com/nature.
I don't go to mythical places with strange men.
-- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.