Uecker Jeremy E, Longest Kyle C
Baylor University, United States.
Furman University, United States.
Soc Sci Res. 2017 Jul;65:145-162. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.01.002. Epub 2017 Jan 12.
Social scientists know very little about the consequences of exposure to scientific knowledge and holding different perspectives on science and religion for individuals' religious lives. Drawing on secularization and post-secular theories, we develop and test several hypotheses about the relationships among exposure to scientific knowledge, perspectives on religion and science, and religious commitment using panel data from the National Study of Youth and Religion. Our findings indicate that religious faith is strongest among young adults who: (1) accommodate scientific knowledge into their religious perspective, or (2) reject scientific knowledge that directly contradicts their religious beliefs about the origins of the world. Young adults are also more likely to have lower religious commitment when they view science and religion as independent institutions, lending support to secularization ideas about how social differentiation secularizes individuals. We further find that mere exposure to scientific knowledge, in terms of majoring in biology or acknowledging conflict between the teachings of religion and science, is usually not sufficient to undermine religious commitment.
社会科学家对接触科学知识以及对科学与宗教持有不同观点给个人宗教生活带来的后果知之甚少。借鉴世俗化和后世俗理论，我们利用来自《全国青少年与宗教研究》的面板数据，提出并检验了几个关于接触科学知识、对宗教与科学的观点以及宗教信仰之间关系的假设。我们的研究结果表明，宗教信仰在以下年轻成年人中最为强烈：（1）将科学知识融入其宗教观点的人，或（2）拒绝与他们关于世界起源的宗教信仰直接相矛盾的科学知识的人。当年轻人将科学和宗教视为独立的机构时，他们也更有可能有较低的宗教信仰，这为关于社会分化如何使个人世俗化的世俗化观点提供了支持。我们进一步发现，仅接触科学知识，如主修生物学或承认宗教教义与科学之间的冲突，通常不足以削弱宗教信仰。
