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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (54860)	3/21/2008 12:08:13 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542169

It appears that those from non-religious backgrounds disproportionately self-select into scientific professions Conversely, I would say that those from religious, esp. fundamentalist/evangelical families self-select away from scientific professions. It stems from an undercurrent of fear among religious folk that understanding scientific principles will result in undermining one's faith.

To: epicure who wrote (54860)	3/21/2008 1:18:29 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542169

Scientists May Not Be Very Religious, but Science May Not Be Nice article. Thanks. Some thoughts. 1. I know what the GSS is, it's the General Social Survey, which has a good reputation but I don't know what the RAAS is. Any idea? 2. There is more than a little debate as to whether the social sciences are "sciences" which is what I had in mind in my previous post. The general notion is that social science types are more likely to politically liberal than natural science types. I suspect it was so on my campus but, if so, not by much, and the actual count would have to take account of a tendency of most faculty to think of themselves as free thinkers. So one would have had to catalogue political beliefs that are different from the usual. 3. The self selection argument makes sense but socialization is also important. And, best I could tell, from my colleagues part of that socialization included thinking of religion and science as separate spheres. I wouldn't wish to make too much of this because I'm only talking about lunch time conversations. So they are only anecdotes in the strongest sense of that qualifier. But it made sense.