Are All Scientists Atheists?

 

When talking with atheists, I often hear them claim that science and Christianity are enemies.  Their claim is that one either believes Christianity or science, but not both.  When I point out that there are many highly regarded scientists and academics who are Christians (some who came to Christ later in life once they had the chance to examine the evidence for God), they claim that the vast majority (if not all) of scientists are atheists and that science leads one to atheism.

But is this true?

The Pew Research Center did a study in 2009 to find out the percent of scientists who believe in God versus those who are skeptics.  The entire article can be found here, but below is a very interesting table taken from that study.

As can be seen, the % of scientists who believe in God is far from 0.  In fact, if we add up the percent of those who believe in God and those who believe in a Universal Spirit or Higher Power, the percent of scientists grows to 51%.

Another interesting finding in this study is the following hopeful bit of information:

The Pew Research Center poll of scientists also found that levels of religious faith vary according to scientific specialty and age. For instance, chemists are more likely to believe in God (41%) than those who work in the other major scientific fields. Meanwhile, younger scientists (ages 18-34) are more likely to believe in God or a higher power than those who are older.

We hear from atheists all the time that belief in God is on the decrease.  And yet Pew's study shows that the younger scientists just entering their careers are more likely to believe in God than older scientists.  One way to interpret this is that younger people hold a belief in God, but through their careers that belief is reduced as they increase their scientific knowledge.  I think the reason is that skepticism ultimately fails.  

Why would I say this?  Consider the following from Dr. Michael Guillen's book "Believing is Seeing".  On page 61 of his book, he says:

First, religious affiliation is increasing, not decreasing, as scientific knowledge soars.  A Pew Research Center study titled The Changing Global Religious Landscape states it plainly: 'The global share of religiously unaffiliated people is actually expected to fall.' Based on current world trends 'people with no religion will make up about 13 percent of the world's population in 2060, down from roughly 16 percent as of 2015.

While there is much work still to do, it is hopeful that the trends seem to be toward an increase in belief rather than a decrease.  So the next time an atheist says 'science leads to atheism', show them the studies that show this is simply not the case.