Feeling Rational: Affinity and Affinity Narratives in British Science–Non-religion Relations

Abstract

Despite widespread, wide-ranging and often straightforward, easily graspable criticisms of its core premises, the idea that religion and science are opposed to one another has proved remarkably resilient. Given how easy the notion is to rebut, it is not therefore the theoretical question (How are religion and science opposed to one another, if at all?) but the empirical one (What is the basis of this problematic binary and its hold over popular and scholarly imaginations?) that is arguably the most compelling.The goal of this chapter is to consider this question from the perspective of non-religion and secularity studies (Bullivant and Lee 2012), focusing in particular on the relationship between science and non-religiosity. It builds on ideas arising from critical secular studies and critical religion studies, both of which challenge the idea that science mainly impacts on religion epistemically, and instead draw attention to the ideological and mythological roles that science plays in the subjectivities, identities and cultures of non-religious people.The chapter uses the UK as a case study for understanding the role of science within non-religious cultural formations found more widely, especially across Europe and other Western regions.The aim of this chapter is to contribute to – and further encourage – the more localised and detailed empirical explorations of perceived non-religion/science affinity that are just beginning to emerge.

Building Enthusiasm and Overcoming Fear: Engaging With Christian Leaders in an Age of Science

“…Social scientific research into science and religion is an expanding area. In the US it remains a popular topic of exploration and it is also gaining momentum in the UK with a diversity of themes being addressed, such as: science and non-religion (Lee, 2019;Kind, 2019), science and Islam (Unsworth, 2019;Carlisle et al 2019) public perceptions of science (Baker 2012;Pew Research Centre Survey 2014;Hill 2015); churchgoers' views on science (Evans 2011); university students' views on religion and science (Ingram and Nelson 2006;Hill 2011); academic scientists' views on religion (Ecklund et al 2011;Ecklund 2012); STEM career choices and religion (Scheitle and Ecklund 2017) and creationism and social networks (Hill 2014 Research specifically on church leaders and science, however, is scarcer and where such work has taken place, generally the sample sizes have been small. Of those studies, the themes of interest have generally been on the connection between personal faith and science (Bouveng and Wilkinson, 2016), the relationship between science and religion (Gregory, 2017), views on evolution and creationism (Colburn and Henriques, 2006) and the implications of science and religion in education (Dickerson et al, 2008).…”

“…Social scientific research into science and religion is an expanding area. In the United States, it remains a popular topic of exploration and it is also gaining momentum in the United Kingdom with a diversity of themes being addressed, such as: science and nonreligion (Lee 2019; Kind 2019), science and Islam (Unsworth 2019; Carlisle et al. 2019), public perceptions of science (Baker 2012; Pew Research Centre Survey 2014; Hill 2015), churchgoers’ views on science (Evans 2011), university students’ views on religion and science (Ingram and Nelson 2006; Hill 2011), academic scientists’ views on religion (Ecklund, Sorrell and Park 2011; Ecklund et al 2019), religious people's views on science (Ecklund and Scheitle 2018), STEM career choices and religion (Scheitle and Ecklund 2017), and creationism and social networks (Hill 2014).…”

Building Enthusiasm and Overcoming ‘Fear’: Engaging with Christian Leaders in an Age of Science

“…Social scientific research into science and religion is an expanding area. In the US it remains a popular topic of exploration and it is also gaining momentum in the UK with a diversity of themes being addressed, such as: science and non-religion (Lee, 2019;Kind, 2019) -2009), YouGov (carried out by Unsworth, 2014), SRES project and YouGov (2017). One of the key issues in carrying out research in science and religion has been the extent to which surveys inadvertently 'force' particular positions; be it in the explicit wording or implicit assumptions behind the questions and corresponding answers.…”