19AR24-30

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AR 24:30 - Huge study of "scientists' attitudes toward religion"

In this issue:

ISLAM - threatened by the "growing corporatization" of Christianity?

MORMONISM - insights on the ex-Mormon experience

SCIENCE - "there are more religious than nonreligious scientists"

Apologia Report 24:30 (1,438)

July 25, 2019

ISLAM

"Is Christianity losing to Islam?" by Paul Seabright (Asia Times, Jun 8 '19) -- begins: "Populists in Europe and North America like to claim that Christianity in the modern world is on the retreat against a resurgent and confident Islam." Not so fast. According to Seabright, "this is no open-and-shut case. ...

"[T]he world is converging demographically, and fast. One of the only iron laws governing human societies is that when women are both educated and free to work for money, they choose to have fewer children, whatever their bishops and imams may say. Fertility in Muslim-majority Iran fell as fast in the 1980s and 1990s as it had done in Communist China under the one-child policy a decade earlier. In the 21st century, demography will lose almost all its earlier importance in shaping the relative growth of the world's religions. ...

"[T]he big religion story in the last century is not one of ideological struggle between Christianity and Islam, with Islam winning. It is a story of growing corporatization, with local and folk religions everywhere being gradually but inexorably replaced by churches and mosques that are affiliated with two of the world's main religious brands. Hinduism and Buddhism, the two other main brands, have been much slower to respond, but they are starting to change, and the growing religious assertiveness of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is just a foretaste of much bigger things to come.

"This phenomenon is the religious equivalent of the displacement by Walmart and Target of local grocery stores across the United States. You may regret it or welcome it, but it has proved unstoppable. ...

"On a world scale - whatever populists may say - Christianity is not struggling; it is in more vigorous shape than it has ever been. And the marketplace is where most of the religious action is going to take place in this century. As in many other marketplaces, there are large returns to economies of scale for those who can work out how to exploit them. That is why corporate religion is here to stay - and why we should expect it to consolidate its dominance." <www.bit.ly/2xXwceP>

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MORMONISM

"Why can't ex-Mormons just leave the LDS Church alone?" by Jana Riess (Religion News Service, Jul 2 '19) -- That's a rhetorical question. Riess <www.bit.ly/2O81Q47> notes that "It's mostly current, active Mormons I hear saying these things, painting a portrait of former members as angry, hateful people who are obsessed with tearing the Church down." Get that?

Actually, "most former Mormons do appear to leave the Church alone. In fact, many weren't 100% committed to it in the first place. The majority of those who leave do so in late adolescence or very early adulthood, which is a similar pattern to other religions in America. ...

"Something has surprised me in the reactions to [her recent work in] The Next Mormons [1] survey findings and book: while I was prepared for pushback from very orthodox Mormons who might be unwilling to admit there are serious retention problems in the U.S. church, there's actually been very little of that so far. Rather, bishops, Relief Society presidents, Institute teachers, and other local leaders have reached out to express gratitude for nationally representative research that quantifies what they are already seeing in their wards, classes, and families. ...

"[N]ew research ... seems to trivialize their pain by saying that most former Mormons left as teenagers and are happy as clams. That they're not angst-ridden, and don't seem to be looking back with regret. ...

"[M]ost ex-Mormons aren't involved in those communities. They're not part of highly visible Facebook discussions and support groups. The vast majority did not serve an LDS mission (only 13% did, according to the NMS) or marry in an LDS temple (only 7% of the respondents who were married had been sealed in the temple)." <www.bit.ly/2JVkoz8>

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SCIENCE

Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion, by Elaine Howard Ecklund (chair of social sciences at Rice University) [2] -- "the most comprehensive international study of scientists' attitudes toward religion ever undertaken, surveying more than 20,000 scientists and conducting in-depth interviews with over 600 of them. ...

"While the participants are mainly biologists and physicists, they show great geographic and cultural diversity, including scientists from the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Turkey, India, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Ecklund and her team quote their subjects liberally to illustrate four key conclusions: there are more religious than nonreligious scientists (the authors define 'religious' broadly as believing in a higher power); scientists often see spiritual qualities within science; the idea that science and religion are in constant conflict is an invention of the modern West; and that religious practices are often allowed in the scientific workplace outside of the West. Aimed at other scientists, the overtly technical prose will be a huge hurdle for most readers. Academics working in theology and the natural sciences, however, will find a wealth of new information here."

Ecklund has been sharpening her focus on the numbers for a decade. We think that, based on past figures <www.bit.ly/2Gmhx1c> mentioned in AR, there will be a good deal of interest in her latest observations.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church, by Jana Riess (Oxford Univ Prs, 2019, hardcover, 328 pages) <www.amzn.to/2zIyKPj>

2 - Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion, by Elaine Howard Ecklund, et. al. (Oxford Univ Prs, 2019, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.amzn.to/2XUTL7j>

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