On Science and Religion

This article aggregates a few talking points on the relationship between Christianity, education, religion, and science.

1. Ecklund and Scheitle, 2017, Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think
   1. About 36 percent of evangelicals think scientists are hostile to religion, compared to 22 percent of Americans overall, according to a 2014 study released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
      1. Ecklund seems baffled about this, but evangelicals are right to think the academy is against them. See The Religious Beliefs and Behavior of College Faculty, 2007, The Institute for Jewish & Community Research Review: Faculty Feel Most Unfavorably about Evangelical Christians. This is the only religious group about which a majority of non-Evangelical faculty have negative feelings.
   2. While university scientists remain less likely than the average American to have a religious affiliation, those with “rank-and-file” science careers aren’t so different than those outside the field...Research showed that believers tend to focus on practical application.
2. Pew, 2015, Religion and Science
   1. Highly religious Americans are less likely than others to see conflict between faith and science.
3. Pew, 2009, Scientists and Belief
   1. A minority of American scientists are irreligious.
   2. Christians are the most common religious group, and protestants are the most common kind of Christian.
   3. A scientist is more likely to be a protestant than an atheist or an agnostic. Combining atheists and agnostics together, they are more common than protestants but less common than Christians.
4. The Independent Effect of Education on Christianity
   
   1. More educated folks are more often church members and more likely to have attended church in the past week.
   2. Converts to theism come disproportionately from those with a Master’s or higher.
   3. Few studies on religiousness consider the unique question on Christianity. If Christianity is true and Islam is false, for example, we would not expect more education to lead to a general effect.
5. On the Apparent Link Between Atheism and Intelligence
   1. \"there is no reason to think that the more intelligent people are less religious, and small reasons to think otherwise.\"
6. Both the Old and New Testaments begin on empirical grounds.
   1. Genesis 1:1 states the universe had a beginning, contra the historical position of atheists that the universe was timeless and without beginning. This is an empirical claim which has been verified by modern science.
   2. The New Testament starts with the Gospels, which are eye witness accounts. Eye witness testimony is a method of collecting empirical data. The gospel accounts are some of the most textually valid historic documents that exist in the entire academic field of history.