I think (1) radical Christians that say evolution and an old earth are
incompatible with a belief in God turn MANY scientists away
(2) our society thrives on dis-connection from nature that would otherwise
give one a sense of connection to a "greater force" (among ancient
societies who lived co-existent with the earth, belief was almost total).
We believe "we" are self-sufficient but its so untrue.
(3) Christians are in many cases not truly *loving*, honoring, respecting
one another in the way God commanded us to. I believe the great apostasy of
scientists has less to do with them becoming so intellectual that they
believe there isn't a God, than it is a societal falling away from God's
truth (even among believers) Unless Christians get it together and start
behaving and modeling God's true love then we will never touch other souls
in the way we were intended -- to spread God's word of love, peace, joy,
self-control, patience, kindness, goodness.
One has to be an extremely strong ("mature") Christian to stand up for your
faith among the large number of non-believing colleagues in science. You
have to know your gospel back & forth, and have that "burning love" etched
on your soul. People tend to be "followers" in general, and right now at
least in US, we tend to follow the wrong way, saying its "ok" to do some
things we really are commanded not to. We have few true Christian leaders
in our everyday life, and we need them desparately.
Wendee
>The following update to the Larson/Witham paper puts matters in a different
>light:
>
>The Washington Times, July 30, 1998, Thursday, Pg. A2
>HEADLINE: The more they learn, the less they believe
>BYLINE: Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham; NATURE
>
> The question of religious belief among U.S. scientists has been debated
>since early in the century. Our latest survey finds that, among the top
>natural scientists, disbelief is greater than ever - almost total.
> Research on this topic began with the eminent American psychologist
>James H. Leuba and his landmark survey of 1914. He found that 58 percent of
>1,000 randomly selected U.S. scientists expressed disbelief or doubt in
>the existence of God, and that this figure rose to near 70 percent among
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