To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (45899 ) 3/31/2002 3:03:44 PM From: Solon Read Replies (2) | Respond to "today there are still 40% of scientists who believe in God one out of 15 scientists with membership in the National Academy of Scientists believe in a PERSONAL God! In 1913 the figure was 27.7%. By 1933 it had declined to 15%. And as we said, by 1998 it had declined to only 7%. "Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0% respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality) , with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality)." Rather, they are atheists because they are distinguisghed scientists. Incredible and ridiculous innuendos to the contrary would require some proof--of which absolutely none have been proffered."Indeed, disbelief seems more pronounced among what Leuba defined as the "greater" scientists, reaching the 90% mark in the new study. "NAS biologists are the most skeptical," notes Larson and Witham, "with 95% of our respondents (NAS) evincing atheism and agnosticism." Similarly, as intellectual historian Paul K. Conkin observes, "Today the higher the educational attainment, or the higher the scores earned on intelligence or achievement tests, the less likely are individuals to be Christians." ""a poignant fact of intellectual life in the midst of the divisive and heated culture wars. They observe that ""some politically savvy scientists recognize the value in downplaying the negative implications for the supernatural that arise from their study of the natural.""
