Religious Beliefs: Their dynamics in two groups of life scientists

Abstract

The assumption that scientific knowledge would bring an end to religious belief has challenged many scholars, particularly since such a belief persists even among those devoted to scientific activities. In this paper the occurrence and nature of religious belief in groups of life scientists working in the UK and Brazil is discussed in the context of their degree of training. Data obtained through one‐to‐one interviews went beyond mere yes/no answers to questions on belonging to a religion or believing in God. Categories were created to assess how open these scientists were with regard to the possibility of the supernatural. The results suggest that scientific training affected their religious belief and reduced the number of believers. Nevertheless there were scientists in both groups whose beliefs persisted.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Professor Peter Burke and Dr Maria Lúcia Palhares‐Burke, Cambridge University (UK), for their critical comments on the manuscript. I am also grateful to Ms Ana M. Ferrara Barbosa who helped with the interviews. On the statistical analysis, I must also thank Dr Reinaldo Castro Souza of Centro Técnico‐Científico (Technical and Scientific Centre) at PUC‐Rio de Janeiro and Dr Gastão Coelho Gomes of Instituto de Matemática (Institute of Mathematics) of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Different stages of this research benefited from support from the Brazilian funding agencies CNPq and CAPES.

Notes

1. The journals in which both groups publish their work attest to the international standard of their production. They include the following: Biochemical Journal, Biochemistry, European Journal of Biochemistry, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Molecular Biology, Molecular Cell Biochemistry, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Protein Science.

2. There were no postdoctoral workers in the group in Brazil. Historically, graduate studies in Brazil concentrate on master’s and doctoral degrees, with only a few recent initiatives supporting postdoctoral degrees. Postgraduate courses had a late start in Brazil in the 1960s.

3. Research, as of today, allow for a most varied interpretation of the terms religion and God. In regard to the former, the meaning herein assumed is that of belief in the supernatural—not only because it offers a contrast with an element that is characteristic of the professional practice of the subjects under investigation, whose objectives and procedures seem to be limited to the natural world—but also for being one accepted by a specialist like Lalande (1996). As for the definition of the term God, the intent here was to present strictly what has been declared by the subjects investigated, the focus of this survey.

4. The research focused on identifying the presence of religious beliefs among two groups of scientists, both comprised of males and females. In the British group, the majority were men; within the Brazilian group, genders were balanced. The size of the sample did not allow for an analysis per gender. Variables such as gender, social class, and even regional characteristics, account for the cultural dynamics in which religious beliefs take place, and studies involving each of these variables are of importance. Nevertheless, the present research concentrated in identifying, within specific groups of scientists, the presence of religious belief and whatever forms of expression thereof, which by themselves open way to reflections on some aspects of the presence of religious beliefs in the scientific environment, a current theme of interest in the modern world as attested by the works by Russell (2002), Brooke (1991), and Larson and Witham (1997). This latest reference, which has been included by suggestion of a referee, to whom I am grateful, shows—by comparing their results against those of Leuba from 1916— that about 40% of (US) scientists ‘still believe in a personal God’.

5. Only Christian religions were declared in both groups.

6. Although the term ‘superstition’ may often be used with a meaning that is more pejorative than analytical, particularly by members of one religion to denigrate those of another (Eliade, 1987), its use here reflects the way the word was employed by the interviewees themselves.

7. In this sense, one can compare the results of the present research against general and national statistical data on the population of the same societal groups used here, even if such data have not been obtained with the same methodology. Would the data here be similar or dissimilar from those of the broader population? In the UK (http://www.statistics.gov.uk), 75% of the population declared that they belonged to a religion. In Brazil (http://www.ibge.gov.br), this proportion is slightly higher than 90%. Comparing these data with those in Tables 1 and 2, one can see that the data in this paper are mostly farther from, rather than closer to, the general data on their respective broader populations.

8. Although important, these aspects are beyond this study, the intent of which is to investigate the current presence of religious beliefs within the groups of scientists focused.

9. Even though the number of Catholics has been decreasing in Brazil, according to statistics (IBGE), in this paper we refer to the fact that prevails as a feature of the Brazilian culture. Birman and Leite (2002) point out that some historians concluded that Brazilian Catholicism was a sort of superficial ‘varnish’, taking the historical characteristics of the official religion in Brazil into account. This means that even though a large number of Brazilians have declared themselves as Catholics, they can also be proponents of different beliefs and religious practices, such as the Afro‐Brazilian rites.