Science and Religion Can Work Together, Study Claims

A latest survey refutes the general view that science and religion do not work together and are at odds.

Science versus religion had been an ongoing debate for decades and there seems to be no resolution to this conflict. An online buzz was created recently with Bille Nye's debate. A new study by researchers at the Rice University says that both science and religion can mix easily.

Based on the responses of over 10,000 Americans that included both scientists and evangelicals, the research claims that the gap existing between religion and science is not as wide as Americans consider it to be. This study of American views on religion and science also included more than 300 in-depth interviews with Christians, Jews, Muslims and 140 evangelicals.

The study, "Religious Understandings of Science (RUS)," was conducted by sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund, Autrey Professor of Sociology and director of Rice's Religion and Public Life Program.

"We found that nearly 50 percent of evangelicals believe that science and religion can work together and support one another," Ecklund said in a press statement. "That's in contrast to the fact that only 38 percent of Americans feel that science and religion can work in collaboration."

The survey also revealed that nearly 18 percent scientists participated in weekly religious services compared to 20 percent of the general U.S. population. Compared to 19 percent of the general U.S. population, nearly 15 percent scientists rated themselves as being very religious and 13.5 percent of them even read the religious texts weekly ( versus 17 percent of the U.S. population). A striking 19 percent of the scientists said prayers several times a day.

Based on this survey, the researcher suggests that the two groups should have a collaborative approach. The study sends across a strong message to the science policymakers as well educators that both science and religion can work in collaboration. The researcher believes that the misconception in people is strengthened by media coverage. "Most of what you see in the news are stories about these two groups at odds over the controversial issues, like teaching creationism in the schools.....There is enormous stereotyping about this issue and not very good information," Ecklund explains.

The survey highlighted certain important findings in which 60 percent of the evangelicals and 38 percent of all surveyed strongly believe that scientists should be willing to acknowledge miracles in their theories. Forty eight percent of the evangelicals sincerely believed that science and religion can go hand in hand. Nearly 22 percent of the general population think scientists are hostile to religion. Nearly 36 percent of scientists have no doubt about God's existence.

This survey also invalidates the conventional thinking that religious people working in science tend to doubt their faith. "Those scientists who identify as evangelical are more religious than regular American evangelicals who are not in science," Ecklund said. "Evangelical scientists feel that they've been put under pressure or they find themselves in what they view to be more hostile environments. They potentially see themselves as more religious, because they're seeing the contrast between the two groups all the time."

The findings of this survey were discussed  in Chicago during the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference.