902 research outputs found
Where the Conflict Really Lies:Quantitatively Locating Evolution Conflicts Internationally
No full textSecularization: What Has Science Got to Do with It?
No full textSome insist that the rise of science has been catastrophic for religion; yet, according to many sociologists, science has played a minimal role in the decline of religion. However, sociological accounts of secularization have tended to focus on impersonal forces of modernization, ignoring the roles played by activist individuals and their organisations. In this chapter I first draw on examples from modern history in the USSR, eastern Germany and Turkey to examine the ways in which various actors have been inspired by a narrative of scientific progress, and have promoted science in various ways to try and bring about secularization at the level of individual belief and practice. The differences in outcomes in these different contexts demonstrate that the success of this strategy is strongly contingent on a range of other factors. I then turn to analyse survey data from present-day Britain, interrogating whether formal scientific education or popular scientific atheism (“New Atheism”) may have played a role in the decline of religion. I conclude that while the acquisition of scientific knowledge is not linked to religious deconversion, the rhetorical use of science as “not-religion” can be important for atheist identity-formation, and this may play a role in secularization
Beyond Belief Systems: Promoting a Social Identity Approach to the Study of Science and Religion
No full textScience and religion as lived experience:Narratives of evolution among British and Canadian publics and life scientists
No full textScience and religion as lived experience:Narratives of evolution among British and Canadian publics and life scientists
No full textRe-examining 'creationist' monsters in the uncharted waters of social studies of science and religion
No full textIN DEFENSE OF PUBLICS: PROJECTION, BIAS, AND CULTURAL NARRATIVES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION DEBATES
No full textJohn H. Evans's recent book Morals Not Knowledge is a timely argument to recognize broader social and cultural factors that might impact what U.S. religious publics think about the relationship between science and religion and their attitudes toward science and/or religion. While Evans's focus is primarily on what can be classed as moral issues, this response argues that there are other factors that sit within neither the older epistemic conflict model approach nor a moral conflict model approach that also merit further investigation. There is a significant need for further research that examines the social, psychological, (geo)political, and broader cultural factors shaping people's social identities in relation to science and religion debates. When undertaking such research, we need to be wary of creating a binary between scholarly and public space discourse. Social scientific research in this field should be led by public perceptions, attitudes, and views, not by concepts or frameworks that we project onto them.</p
Creating creationists:the influence of ‘issues framing’ on our understanding of public perceptions of clash narratives between evolutionary science and belief
No full textClash narratives relating to evolutionary science and personal belief are a recurrent theme in media or public space discourse. However, a 2009 British Council poll undertaken in 10 countries worldwide shows that the perception of a necessary clash between evolutionary worldviews and belief in a God is a minority viewpoint. How then does the popular conception that there is an ongoing conflict between evolution and belief in God arise? One contributing factor is the framing and categorization of creationism and evolutionism within large-scale surveys for use within media campaigns. This article examines the issue framing within four polls conducted in the United Kingdom and internationally between 2008 and 2013. It argues that by ignoring the complexity and range of perspectives individuals hold, or by framing evolutionary science as atheistic, we are potentially creating ‘creationists’ − including ‘Islamic creationists’ − both figuratively and literally
Contending with Complexity:The Challenges of Global Histories of Evolution and Religion
Full text linkThis chapter explores recent research on the historical interaction between evolution and religion across various global contexts. Positioned within the current body of work on the history of science and religion, the chapter presents case studies that showcase diverse and intricate relationships between evolutionary science and different religious traditions over time and space. In this chapter we emphasize the need for researchers to understand their local context deeply while also integrating analysis into a broader global framework. We suggest that, rather than diluting the significance of local nuances, adopting a global perspective offers valuable insights, particularly through the inclusion of postcolonial, transnational, and subaltern viewpoints.Utilizing diverse media sources, including periodicals, books, movies, and television, the chapter highlights challenges faced by historians studying daily perceptions of evolution across diverse societies. The authors demonstrate how their research has benefited from close collaboration with sociologists, social psychologists, and other scholars exploring public perceptions of science and religion. Advocating for reciprocal engagement between social scientists and historians, we contend that social scientists can enhance their own study designs by leveraging insights from historians, such as an understanding of how certain scientific concepts have been used to serve specific imperialist or nationalist agendas.</p
International Perspectives on Science, Culture, and Belief: From Complexity to Globality (Ed. by Stephen H. Jones)
Full text linkPublic understanding of the relationship between science and religion is dominated by US and UK perspectives and research that has been carried out in Western Protestant Anglophone contexts. This has enabled a culturally specific narrative of conflict to dominate public discussions of evolution, science, and religion, obscuring the varied cultural contexts and complexities within which engagement with science takes place and the growing influence of non-religious identities and diverse forms of spirituality.Representing one of the most wide-ranging and original contributions to the emerging body of research on the relationship between religion, non-religion, and science in society, this innovative and timely collection revisits, challenges, and rethinks longstanding assumptions by decentring positions and perspectives that have until recently dominated discussions of science and belief. Drawing on almost a decade of multidisciplinary research, International Perspectives on Science, Culture, and Belief: From Complexity to Globality brings together incisive global perspectives exploring the social and cultural drivers of the relationships between evolutionary science and belief. Highlighting the natures and varieties of the interrelation between science and belief globally, this volume addresses the relationships between science, culture, and belief from multiple disciplines, methodologies, and geographical contexts including South Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Australia as well as Europe and North America.This work has particular relevance in the increasingly polarised post-pandemic world, shining a light for the first time on the multifaceted interplay between social identities and cultural narratives in debates that are often about far more than the science
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