Ecklund, E. and C. Scheitle. 2005. “Religious Differences between Natural and Social Scientists: Preliminary Results from a Study of ‘Religion among Academic Scientists’ (RAAS).” Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.
In this working paper, Ecklund and Scheitle present preliminary findings from their survey of science faculty attitudes toward religion. Based on a survey of 1,646 faculty members at elite research institutions, they find that “those in the academy appear not to be as irreligious as some academic and popular commentators would like to think.” Although they find that 67% of natural scientists and 62% of social scientists are either atheist or agnostic, they further find that two-thirds of both types of scientists consider themselves to be spiritual. The authors conclude that “rather than leaving religion altogether, many academics have instead pieced together a personal spirituality. For some this means drawing on several different traditions in a syncretic fashion to create a purpose and meaning for life outside the self and outside pragmatic day-to-day activity.”
