Which religion do you affiliate with?

[micromass]

I was hoping it didn't have to come to this. But please be respectful of other people's opinions, even if you don't agree with them. For example, calling religion/lack of religion delusional is not tolerated. Saying that a knowledge of physics somehow prevents you from being religious is also not tolerated.

I really don't want to lock this thread, so please don't make me

 

[jtbell]

Five years ago, the Pew Foundation did a survey of scientists (specifically, members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science magazine) about their religious beliefs:

http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/

One result surprised me: the percentage who believe in God or some other "higher power" is larger for younger age groups:

• Age 18-34: 66%
• Age 35-49: 51%
• Age 50-64: 50%
• Age 65+: 46%

 

[OmCheeto]

I didn't see "All of the above", so I chose "other".

I'm pretty certain that atheists view me as a bible thumping christian, and bible thumping christians think I'm going to hell for my heretical beliefs/questions.

Call me an OmCheetist: "Nothing is really certain. Heisenberg said so."

ps. Above all else, I believe in the angel called Karma. She hath smote me more than once.

 

[WWGD]

Indeed that seems to be the case. :)

But the way you phrased your response seemed like it would be self-evident that physicists would not be religious, as if the two positions are mutually exclusive.

There is a statistical method for testing whether the proportion of believers in
both populations --PF'ers and general population-- is the same. It may be interesting
to do this test for each poll, tho it seems difficult to determine what the 'general population' should be in this case, since PF'ers come from many countries. One can test against populations of different countries, tho.

 

[Evo]

I'm not sure I agree. I have an atheist friend who is very unhappy when the different flavors of non-believers get lumped together.

But does he actually *want* a label or just object to they type of label chosen for him since it misrepresents him? Which is why I oppose any label, what ever they think the label they use means may have nothing to do with my thoughts.