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Re: [Phys-L] science +- politics +- religious denominations (plural)



Well of course anti-science attitudes are not just a function of religion.
They are a function of particular religios groups, and are also a function
of built in paradigms. There was a study which showed that a larger number
of Korean (as I recall) students had a resistance to evolution even though
there is no religios reason to oppose it.

Of course the numbers are not corrected the number of individuals in each
denomination. The Catholic church is far and away the largest one, while
the Episcopal church is not very large. Presbyterian refers to the origin
of the church and the organization, not to specific conservative vs liberal
orientations. Most of the mainline churches, Catholic, Methodist... endorse
scientific findings. The Lutheran church in the US is split into different
synods with the Missouri Synod being "conservative" and anti-science.
Muslims generally accept geology and cosmology, but not evolution. Buddists
have no qualms about science or even abortion. Thailand, a 95% Buddist
country, has endorsed gay marriage. A friend told me that the best
explanation he had for evolution was told him by a nun in a Catholic school.
My wife found that the churches in Durham, NC, when she was growing up,
accepted science and were very similar. I suspect that is a function of
large established churches in urban areas.

If a church is labeled evangelical there is a large probability of its
members espousing anti-science attitudes. Churches that bill themselves as
"conservative" will probably also be anti-science. And of course we know
that Republicans are more often anti-science than Democrats, while
independents are the most accepting of science. But we also know that
Republicans are more likely to be involved in their churches according to
the surveys. So whether anti-science attitudes are due to religion or
politics is irrelevant. What is relevant is that people with these
attitudes are in charge of education and science funding in key places in
the government. I don't hear prominent conservatives castigating these
attitudes. And of course if liberals decry these attitudes, then science is
labeled as a liberal idea. That never used to be true in the past. Both
sides at one time supported sceince, but no more. We need to go back to a
bit more civility with science universally accepted. But that requires real
education!

Anton Lawson has a number of papers where he shows increases in thinking
skills, and also explores why students have trouble with evolution.
Conventional lecture courses basically do not change student minds. They
have to engage with material to change. Yes, education does involve
doctrination, to an extent. It can even involve kindly brain washing, but
that is done by getting students to think deeply and explore concepts.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


Here are some amusing numbers:

0 lds.org The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
0 pcanet.org Presbyterian Church in America
0 cumberland.org Cumberland Presbyterian Church
1 naccc.org National Association of
Congregational Christian Churches
7 mormon.org The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
7 lcms.org Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod
107 urj.org Union for Reform Judaism
345 ucc.org United Church of Christ
619 anglicancommunion.org Anglican Communion
1010 pcusa.org Presbyterian Church USA
1870 umc.org United Methodist Church
2690 episcopalchurch.org Episcopal Church
3700 .va Roman Catholic Church

The numbers represent google's count of the number of times
the phrase "climate change" appears on each denomination's web site.

For example, the Pontifical Academy of Science lumps climate
change in with deforestation and other habitat-destruction
issues, which seems remarkably reasonable to me.

It pays to be careful. At the lexical level you might think
that the Presbyterian Church in the USA might be similar to
the Presbyterian Church in America ... but that would be
spectacularly wrong, by a ratio of 1000 to zero.

====

These numbers suggest to me that it would be a serious
mistake to associate the anti-science attitude with religion
per se. It looks to me like politics, not religion.

There are some denominations that believe that separation of
church and state is good for the church /and/ good for the
state ... but other denominations not so much.
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