What proportion of scientists believe in a Supreme Being and/or in a personal God? Maybe you know the answer. If not, have a guess before you read the answer later in the article. I recently came across a survey (Nature vol. 394, page 313) designed to answer these questions. The study replicated a survey made in 1916 by Dr James Leuba of Bryn Mawr University which showed that about 40 per cent of scientists believed in a Supreme Being.
Edward Larson from the University of Georgia repeated Leuba's study in 1997. Some 40 per cent of the respondents to Larson's questionnaire express belief in a Supreme Being, while nearly 45 per cent do not believe. However, only 7 per cent of scientists in Larson's study believe in a "personal God" compared with about 40 per cent in the 1916 study. Belief in human life after death declined from 35.2 per cent in the 1916 study to 7.9 per cent in Larson's study. Both studies showed the highest rate of belief in God amongst mathematicians (14.3 per cent in Larson's study) while the lowest was found amongst those in the life sciences (5.5 per cent in Larson's study).
I was mildly surprised to learn that 40 per cent of American scientists believe in a Supreme Being and that this figure has not significantly declined over the past 80 years. However, the significant decline in belief in a personal God does indicate a weakening of religious beliefs among scientists.
The purpose of science is to investigate how the natural world works. Science can consider only natural mechanisms as explanations for the natural world. Science has no competence to investigate supernatural phenomena and has nothing to say about the supernatural. Because science has nothing to say about the supernatural world does not mean that it denies the supernatural world. Science is by no means unique in having nothing to say about the supernatural world. Neither medicine, law, carpentry nor athletics (to take four random examples) has anything to say about the supernatural world either, but nobody suspects that these activities deny the supernatural world.
Of course, scientists are under more pressure than most groups to clarify their thoughts on the supernatural. After all, supernatural explanations are seriously proposed for several large phenomena for which scientists are actively pursuing natural explanations, e.g. the origin of life, the origin of human consciousness, etc. But it does not follow, if a natural explanation is found for a phenomenon that previously was accounted for by a supernatural explanation, that the general supernatural realm is thereby invalidated. The philosophy of materialism claims that everything in the universe results from the properties of matter and energy. A materialist cannot believe in the supernatural.
It is not necessary for a scientist to be a materialist. Many scientists freely choose to believe in the supernatural, as confirmed by the recent survey. The scientist is free to believe in the supernatural so long as he/she confines the search for explanation of natural phenomena to the natural realm. The traditional picture of the organisation of the world divides it into a five-level hierarchy. At the bottom is the mineral, inanimate level, consisting of matter and energy. As you move up the levels, a new qualitative property is seen at each step. The second level is the vegetable level (plants), which consists of matter and energy, but, in addition, is alive. The third level is the animal level, consisting of matter, energy, life, and, in addition, consciousness. The fourth level is the human level, consisting of matter, energy, life, consciousness, and, in addition, self-consciousness.
An arrow of complexity points upwards through these levels. Mankind has always felt that the arrow points to a supernatural level above the human level, which completes the hierarchy. The main religions are devoted to explaining this supernatural level and its relationship to the other levels .
RELIGION is in sharp decline in the West. At the same time our knowledge of the natural world and our material standards of living are steadily increasing. But, in my opinion, human happiness is decreasing. In the past people accepted a different philosophy of life, which assigned to people a position in life with more clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The influence of religion has been eroded to a pale shadow of its former strength. Past ideas of connectedness between people and the importance of responsibility have been replaced by ideas of the freedom and rights of the individual.
The core value of religion is spirituality. If we are possessed of spiritual souls, and I believe we are, we can never form successful and happy societies if we ignore the spiritual dimension. By spirituality I mean the sum of those things that our nature thirsts for in order to lead a fulfilled life. In summary, we need to grow in wisdom and in love. Wisdom means understanding and working the principles that underpin decent human relations. And, in practical terms, love means treating your neighbour with the same courtesy and respect that you would wish to receive yourself. It seems our nature is such that we will only ever be persuaded to act in this manner in large numbers if we do so for the love of a Supreme Being.
Let me end on a lighter note. There was a very long discussion in a Jewish theological seminary about proofs of the existence of God. Things became very confused. After some hours one rabbi got up and said in exasperation, "God is so great, He does not even need to exist".
William Reville is a senior lecturer in biochemistry and director of microscopy at UCC.