A recent study from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor may frustrate those New Atheists who think that science is the best antidote to religion. The key finding of the study:
College students who major in the social sciences and humanities are likely to become less religious, while those majoring in education are likely to become more religious.
But students majoring in biology and physical sciences remain just about as religious as they were when they started college.
The researchers offered a rather convincing explanation for why this is:
“Our results suggest that it is Postmodernism, not Science, that is the bête noir of religiosity. One reason may be that the key ideas of Postmodernism are newer than the key scientific ideas that challenge religion. For example, religions have had 150 years to develop resistance or tolerance for the late 19th century idea of Evolution, but much less time to develop resistance or tolerance for the key ideas of Postmodernism, which gained great strength over the course of the 20th century.”
This is yet another reason why I prefer Christopher Hitchens humanities-informed critique of religion over Richard Dawkins’ more scientific approach.
Now, it is true that scientists are notably less religious than the population at large. An astounding 93% of scientists at the prestigious National Academy of Sciences are either atheists or agnostics. But as this University of Michigan study suggests, we cannot necessarily chalk up their disbelief to their science education.
The study also found that education majors are “safe havens” for religious students. “Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate,” wrote co-author of the study Miles Kimball. Anyone who attends Utah State University, though, already knows this to be true. Ha ha.
I anecdotally found this to be true of my professors. All but one of my foreign language professors at BYU were very liberal, some to the point of being pro-gay marriage (secretly of course, else they’d be fired). Whereas my non humanities professors were generally much more conservative/Mormony.
I agree with Kleiner regarding the distinction between Post-modernism (responding to and against modernism) and Postmodernism (just going further into deconstruction). My (and I think most religious) response to postmodernism is simple: You’re an idiot.
A mindset being adopted more by an empire in decline, which facilitates and supports the mentality of that decline (selfishness, individualism and individual perception over reality etc) doesn’t seem to be something religion really has to respond to with “tolerance.” Interestingly enough concerning the nature of this post and article, postmodernism and a lot of what I see in liberal secularism is more at odds with science. Everyone is equal, and truth is what is true to you (there’s a memory, my first day Kleiner’s class and the first thing said by a student!). Mother Nature replies: “Hm, yeah, you’ll make good compost. Maybe the next thing will actually have a clue. Work or die moron.”
Its why I like a non humanist Universe, its very exact.
Interesting bit about the education majors, around here you have a lot of them being business majors as well (not a huge surprise though given the structure of our school). Safe I suppose, though I’m glad to have people wanting to be teachers, it does seem to signify a desire for less engaging pursuits.
Also, what the hell is the need for educational majoring again? Either you know your shit or you don’t. I’m not sure learning to more efficiently blow smoke is a good practical measure for education. Most who know me know I think Business is a degree made up by someone trying to impress during an interview.