S2 Episode 3: Varieties of Atheism in Science with Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund and Dr David R. Johnson

In this episode, hosts Rachael Shillitoe and Richard Grove, meet with Elaine Howard Ecklund, Professor of Sociology at Rice University and David R. Johnson, Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University, to discuss their new book, Varieties of Atheism in Science, out now with Oxford University Press. Elaine and David reflect on the findings of their study which drew on surveys and interviews with atheist scientists in the UK and USA. Chatting with Rachael and Richard, Elaine and David, challenge some of the commonly held assumptions about the interrelation between atheism and science by exploring atheist scientists’ diverse views of religion, their perspectives on the limits to what science can explain, and their views of meaning and morality.

(This episode was recorded in November 2021)

This podcast is 53 minutes and 08 seconds long.

The keywords associated with this podcast are:

  • Atheism
  • Science
  • Non-religion
  • Atheist scientists
  • Morality
  • New atheism

To learn more about Elaine and David’s work, we recommend that you check out:

This blog article: Elaine Howard Ecklund and David R. Johnson (2019). ‘Scientists Talk Religion Around the Globe’. Mon 9 Dec 2019, Biologos https://biologos.org/articles/scientists-talk-religion-around-the-globe [Date Accessed: 09/10/2021]

This paper: Elaine Howard Ecklund (2021) Science and Religion in (Global) Public Life: A Sociological Perspective, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 89(2):672-700.

This book: Elaine Howard Ecklund and David R. Johnson (2021) Varieties of Atheism in Science. Oxford University Press.

This book: Elaine Howard Ecklund, David R. Johnson, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Kirstin R. W. Matthews, Steven W. Lewis, Robert A. Thomson Jr., and Di Di (2019) Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion. Oxford University Press.