How We Believe_ Science and the Search for God - Michael Shermer [54]
In retrospect, those who might best be described as “militant atheists”—whose behavior often resembles in intensity that of the fanatical believers they despise—appear to be a vocal minority. The 35 percent of skeptics who believe that God’s existence is either very likely or possible is not too far off Larson and Witham’s 42 percent of general scientists who profess belief. It is also in the range of a 1969 Carnegie Commission study of 60,000 college professors that revealed that 34 percent of physical scientists considered themselves “religiously conservative,” and 43 percent said they attended church two to three times a month, the latter figure being not so different from the general population.
So, while the majority of skeptics and scientists do not believe in God, a surprisingly large minority do. The question is, why? Why do scientists and skeptics believe in God? For that matter, why does anyone believe in God? As we have seen already, the question is partially answered by how our brains and genes are wired. But only partially. Although estimates of a 50 percent influence by genes on religiosity sounds like a lot, we must remember that genes do not determine behavior so much as code for a range of reactions to the environment in a complex and always interactive feedback loop between the two. Therefore the environment still plays an extremely powerful role in the expression of genetic traits. What is that role?
In 1998, MIT social scientist Frank Sulloway and I conducted an empirical study to answer this question, along with the more general one of why people believe in God. We began with a more sophisticated follow-up survey of members of the Skeptics Society, which had doubled in size since 1995. The survey was divided into four parts that included family background, religious beliefs, reasons for belief or disbelief, and an essay question asking why people believe (or disbelieve), and why they think other people believe. We followed up this survey with another that was mailed to a random sample of Americans.
The Skeptics Survey
Of the approximately 1,700 respondents to the Skeptics Society survey, 78 percent were men, 22 percent were women, and the average age was 49. Surprisingly, although twice the size of the first study, this group was just as well educated as the 1995 group, with over a fifth holding Ph.D.s and over three-quarters college graduates. (As we shall see, education plays a crucial role in religiosity.) Since the wording of the questionnaire had changed, the answers to the question Do you believe there is a God (a purposeful higher intelligence that created the universe)? varied slightly from the first survey.
In a similar question, 14 percent called themselves theists and 23 percent agnostics. As I pointed out in Chapter 1, there is a significant difference between having no belief in a God and believing there is no God, and for this reason we asked specifically where nonbelievers fell on this issue. We found 22 percent nontheists (no belief in God), while 32 percent said they were atheists (there is no God). In all, 18 percent, or almost a fifth, said, “Definitely yes” or “Very likely yes” there is a God. However, since only 14 percent called themselves theists, clearly some who think of themselves as agnostics also have some belief in God. In fact, 2 percent who called themselves agnostics also answered, “Definitely yes” or “Very likely yes” to the God question. It would seem possible then to believe in God while simultaneously having some doubts about His existence. All of this shows just how personal and subjective religious beliefs can be.
Interestingly, although 67 percent of our respondents attended church at least once