Admin, Author at International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society

New Pew Report on the Intersection of Science and Religion in Southeast Asia

By James Riley Pew Research Center recently released a new report exploring the intersections of science and religion, based on new data from interviews with Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists in Malaysia and Singapore. The report’s authors said: “The discussions reinforced the conclusion that there is no single, universally held view of the relationship between science and religion, but they also identified some common patterns and themes within each of the three religious groups”. In total, 72 individuals were interviewed, 24 from each religious tradition, with the same number from each country. All the interviewees in the study said religion was important to their lives. While qualitative data from interviews does not allow for representative claims about populations, such data does allow us to explore individual’s perceptions in depth, developing themes within and across groups. From the interviews the researchers noted both distinct and overlapping themes regarding interviewees’ perceptions of the

Reflections on the 2020 Early Career Workshop

By Amanda Beardsley and Jude Likori In July of this year, the INSBS Network hosted a week-long workshop for Early Career Researchers. The Workshop was split into two groups to accommodate a broad range of time zones. Two members of the groups give us their reflections on the workshop below; Amanda (West Cohort) and Jude (East Cohort). Amanda wrote: With the onset of a global pandemic, many have suddenly found events cancelled or moved to the less than optimal format of Zoom calls. This was the case for the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop hosted by the International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society (INSBS) held 20-24 July 2020. Though I had looked forward to meeting everyone in South Africa in person—and Zoom has proven relatively spotty in the past—the workshop proved an educational, well-organized, and deeply meaningful resource for someone in their early career.

Funding Success for INSBS Network member

Congratulations to our Network member, Bastiaan Rutjens (University of Amsterdam) on his recent success in securing a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to set up a lab focussed on the psychology of science skepticism. We caught up with Bastiaan recently and he explained that “The rejection of science that we see across various segments of society represents an important challenge. While recent research has shed light on some of the ideological correlates of specific manifestations of science skepticism – such as climate change denial and vaccine hesitancy – a unifying psychological principle that can be applied to understanding the causes of science skepticism more generally has not yet been identified”. The Psychology of Science (PsySci) lab team, alongside Bastiaan consists of Natalia Zarzcecna, Bojana Veckalov, and Esther Niehoff. In the coming years, the lab team will delve deeply into the underlying causes of science rejection and distrust in science

Are there 100,000,000 creationists in the USA?

By James Riley In June, 2019, Gallup released their most recent poll of public attitudes on evolution and creation in the USA. According to their survey, 40% of the sampled US population were creationists. That is, when asked: “Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings?” 40% of respondents selected: “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.”

Uniformity, biblical criticism and supernatural activity in the 19th century

By Nathan Bossoh In June 1887 the Canadian writer Grant Allen aptly summed up the evolution of science over the preceding fifty years in an article for the Fortnightly Review entitled “The Progress of Science from 1836 to 1886”. After providing an elaborate yet succinct overview of the immense expansion of science, Allen concluded that

INSBS Conference Postponed

As you will all be aware, across many countries governments and universities have recently been placing restrictions on people’s travel in response to the COVID 19 epidemic, with many higher education institutions closing completely for an indefinite period. This includes bans on mass gathering over 100 people and incoming international travel in some countries including South Africa. In the UK we have not yet witnessed many restrictions on travel and large gatherings, but it seems increasingly likely that such restrictions will come into place in the coming weeks. As this situation develops, running the scheduled INSBS annual conference in Stellenbosch in July 2020 has appeared increasingly unfeasible over the past few weeks. Even if some of us are able to travel by July, many team members or delegates will be unable to attend, or understandably will be unwilling to do so due to the risks involved. We have therefore been working

How should we respond to prejudices about belief?

By Stephen H. Jones Reflections on Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All The publication of The Runnymede Trust’s report Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All in 1997 was a watershed moment in the history of recognising and opposing anti-Muslim prejudice. The first British policy report to focus on the problem of Islamophobia, it is often credited with popularising the term. Last week an updated report, Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All, was released to mark its twentieth anniversary. In this post, Stephen H. Jones offers reflections on the new report’s understanding of Islamophobia utilising research for Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum on non-Muslims’ perceptions of Islam and science.

PRESS RELEASE: results of major new survey on evolution

NEW EVOLUTION SURVEY SHOWS THAT WHILST THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN UK AND CANADA ACCEPT EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE, NON-RELIGIOUS AND ATHEIST INDIVIDUALS SHOW SIMILAR DOUBTS ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF HUMANS AND HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AS RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALS. Brighton, 5th September 2017 A Newman University/YouGov survey examining public perceptions and attitudes towards evolution has found that while there is a broad consensus of acceptance towards evolutionary science in both countries, surprisingly, non-religious and specifically atheist publics show similar trends to religious and spiritual publics when it comes to expressing doubts about evolutionary science based explanations for human origins and the development of human consciousness.

One Nation, United? Science, Religion, and American Public Opinion

By Shiri Noy and Timothy L. O’Brien Debates about science and religion—whether they conflict and how they factor into public opinion, policies, and politics—are of longstanding interest to social scientists. Research in this area often examines how those in elite positions use science and religion to justify competing claims. But, more generally how do members of the public incorporate science and religion into their worldviews? The assumption that science and religion inherently conflict with one another has come under increasing scrutiny and recent studies reveal that science and religion are more compatible than previously assumed. Some argue that science and religion lead to conflicting opinions only when enlisted in controversies, which relate directly to science or religion, such as genetically modified organisms and stem cell research. In a recent study we asked whether public perspectives on science and religion also relate to issues where science and religion are not directly implicated.

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