Interaction of Religion and Science: Development of a Questionnaire and the Results of Its Administration to Undergraduates.

Abstract

A questionnaire was developed and administered to undergraduate students to assess the influence of religiosity on their attitudes toward science as a career and their belief in scientific evidence and concepts. The results indicate that religiosity does influence these attitudes and is a factor to be considered in planning science instruction. Science teachers in general, and biology teachers in particular, have been concerned about their student's rejection of concepts of life and living things based on scientific evidence, and the acceptance, in their stead, of animism, superstitious beliefs, and magical thinking (e.g., Brumby, 1984; Lawson and Thompson, 1988; Seaford, 1990; Simpson & Marek, 1988; Strahler, 1987; Wells, 1989). Feder (1986) found that 62.3% of a Connecticut college student sample agreed with the statement God created the universe. Lawson and Weser(1990) found that 34% of an Arizona State University student sample agreed with the statement, All living things were created during a short period of time by an act of God, and that after a 14 week introductory biology course for nonmajors the percentage agreeing had dropped to 32.5%, a statistically insignificant change. Lawson and Weser also assessed other beliefs held by these students that are contrary to scientific evidence, finding that the students generally subscribed to unscientific positions. Percentages of students holding these unscientific beliefs varied from a low of 10%-14% in agreement with the nonreductionist view that living and nonliving things are not composed of similar materials or subject to the same physical laws, to a high of 70%-80% believing in a nonmeasurable, life-sustaining force within organisms. Of much concern is that, subsequent to the biology course, changes in beliefs were in both directions, toward scientific beliefs in some students and away from them in others. Lawson and Worsnop (1992) found that prior to an evolution unit being taught, 49.5% of 107 students enrolled in a high school biology course in a suburban community near Phoenix, Arizona, agreed with the statement All living things were created during a short period of time by an act of God. Following the three-week evolution unit the percentage agreeing had dropped to 47% (statistically insignificant). Other studies (Mickle, 1993; Stewart, 1992) found that animistic answers were chosen in response to 5 multiple-choice questions by 24% to 76% of their samples of undergraduates enrolled in introductory biology classes at North Carolina State University and Michigan State University. The questions addressed such issues as the ability of inanimate objects (e.g. a pearl, the ocean) to feel or to know. The conflict between religious commitment and scientific beliefs may have an impact on students' choice of and attitude toward scientific careers. Esbenshade (1993) found that of high school students enrolled in a summer course on religion and science, 56% of the boys and 43% of the girls reported that they had very strongly or often considered a scientific career. Of these, 28% stated that their faith could interfere with that choice. Sixty-two percent of those considering science careers also answered that there was weak acceptance of scientific theory by their religion. This sample of students was reported to have typically ranked in the top 20 to 25% of their high school classes and were mostly white and Christian (approximately 94% each). While these studies provide us with some indication that religious beliefs may interfere with the acceptance of scientific explanations of phenomena and with choosing scientific careers, there are few, if any, studies investigating these relationships. The current study was designed for two purposes: 1) to develop a questionnaire that would allow the investigation of the relationship among three variables: religious commitment, scientific beliefs (explanations of naturally occurring phenomena), and attitudes toward careers in the sciences, and 2) to investigate, in a preliminary study, the relationships among those variables in a sample of college students. …