Nevertheless, international surveys of scientists suggest that most scientists, including in the U.S., don’t see science and religion as opposing forces, but as independent spheres of reality that offer different ways of observing the world. In places such as Italy, India, Turkey and Taiwan, over 50% of scientists identify as at least slightly religious. Even in the U.S., about 30% of scientists claim to be at least slightly religious, with about 10% saying they have no doubt that God exists.
Meanwhile, the loudest voices in the American scientific community are those who present religion and science as being inherently incompatible, according to Elaine Ecklund, a sociologist and director of the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University.
But it is only certain branches of science that seem to impinge on core religious beliefs, such as the existence of a divine creator, that rile the American public, Ecklund pointed out: No one is protesting the science that led to, say, refrigeration. It is when scientists disparage beliefs that people’s lived experiences have shown to be true that it breeds suspicion.
“That’s made the general public think of the scientific community as very inaccessible, very authoritarian, and it’s led to significant mistrust,” Ecklund said.
The science-faith divide between Democrats and Republicans appears to have deepened during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Pew Research Center survey published last May. About 53% of respondents who were Democrats or leaned Democrat said they had a “great deal” of confidence in medical scientists to act in the public interest, an increase of 16 percentage points compared with the previous year. During that same period, Republicans’ trust in medical scientists remained roughly the same (about 31%).
Republican-leaning respondents’ views overlapped closely with those of white evangelical Protestants. About 31% of white evangelicals said they had a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public — a lower percentage than white nonevangelical Protestants, Catholics, the religiously unaffiliated and even Black Protestants, a group whose relationship with the scientific community has been marred by historic inequities.
White evangelicals’ confidence in scientists as a whole was even lower. Only 25% of this religious group said they had a great deal of trust in scientists in general.
“Science and a mistrust of scientists as people has come to be bundled with a Republicanism and a form of evangelical Christianity, for some,” Ecklund said. “The trick is how do we delink those things. How do we say that you can be a Republican or conservative Christian and it doesn’t mean necessarily that you need to mistrust scientists?”
The answer may be faith itself.
Many communities have looked to clergy to vouch for the safety of the vaccine, but Ecklund said her own research is starting to show that some clergy are fearful that coming out in favor of science or of vaccine efforts will lead to political divisions in their congregations. Yet, according to an April study from PRRI and Interfaith Youth Core, nearly half (47%) of vaccine-hesitant white evangelicals who regularly attend church say that they’d be more likely to get vaccinated if a religious leader or fellow church member encouraged it, got a vaccine, or if their church was a vaccination site.
Along with religious leaders, Ecklund said, the “everyday scientists sitting in the pews” will be vital bridge builders, since they speak the languages of science and religion and can serve as trusted interlocutors in white evangelical communities and also in faith communities of color. On a national level, she pointed to National Institutes of Health chief Francis Collins, a rare outspoken Christian in science.
But fellow Christians who are scientists at a local church may be more powerful influences. “People really need to see people who look like them and hear people who believe like them in the scientific community,” said Ecklund. “People are more likely to trust people they know, especially in a time where we are just being inundated with information all the time. Relationships are extremely important.”
Ahead of the Trend is a collaborative effort between Religion News Service and the Association of Religion Data Archives made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. See other Ahead of the Trend articles here.
This article originally appeared here.
