Do scientists see conflict between science and faith? Which cultural factors shape the attitudes of scientists toward religion? Can scientists help show us a way to build collaboration between scientific and religious communities, if such collaborations are even possible?

To answer these questions and more, the authors of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion completed 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. From this wealth of data, the authors extract the real story of the relationship between science and religion in the lives of scientists around the world. The book makes four key claims: there are more religious scientists than we might think; religion and science overlap in scientific work; scientists - even atheist scientists - see spirituality in science; and finally, the idea that religion and science must conflict is primarily an invention of the West. Throughout, the book couples nationally representative survey data with captivating stories of individual scientists, whose experiences highlight these important themes in the data. Secularity
and Science leaves inaccurate assumptions about science and religion behind, offering a new, more nuanced understanding of how science and religion interact and how they can be integrated for the common good.

Review

"excellent" -- Blake Victor Kent, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith

"The book does not assume any specialist knowledge and is very accessibly written, with helpful summaries offered throughout. This style coupled with an impressive amount of rigorously collected data means it should appeal to a very wide range of audiences." -- Dr Amy Unsworth, University College London, Science & Christian Belief, Vol 33, No. 1

"This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive study of scientists' religiosity, and their beliefs about the relation between science and religion, ever conducted. The researchers are to be applauded for the scope of their study and the accessibility of its presentation. Secularity and Science will serve as a valuable resource to those interested in how religion features in the lives of scientists around the world, and a useful jumping-off point for future studies in a similar vein. It is yet another large-scale social study of science and religion which demonstrates the complex, culturally and geographically specific nature of their multiple relationships in contemporary societies." -- James Riley, University of Birmingham, Modern Believing

"The authors do an excellent job of describing the broad contours of science and religion in each region they study..." -- Amy Unsworth, Science & Christian Belief

"This fascinating and uniquely informative study is thus likely to have a major influence on the field of the sociology of science and religion, thanks both to its findings and what it leaves out. It will no doubt inspire many new studies on individual cases as well as comparative works, and in this respect, marks the beginning of a new stage in the scholarship on science and religion in contemporary societies." -- M. Alper Yalcinkaya, Review of Religious Research

"the survey gives a rich picture of the field in a variety of cultural contexts, and is well worth close study." -- David Lorimer, Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network

"This well-written and highly readable book is based on the most comprehensive study of scientists in very different social and cultural contexts, including Western countries and Chinese societies. The survey findings provide an overview of the contrast between scientists and the general population in regard to religion in each society, and the in-depth interviews with scientists provide nuanced understanding of their views and their distinct social and cultural contexts. Among many takeaways, it is interesting to see that from the West to the East, most contemporary scientists do not perceive religion and science in conflict." -- Fenggang Yang, Professor of Sociology and Director of Center on Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University

"Investigations of scientists' views of religion have generally only examined the U.S. case. This book, based on a monumental amount of data across eight countries, is without question the most extensive study of religious and national differences in views of religion and science - and expertly shines new light on that relationship."--John H. Evans, Tata Chancellor's Chair and Associate Dean of Social Sciences, University of California San Diego

"An exciting book to better understand the broad variety of links between science and religion in different national contexts, thanks to a deep quantitative and qualitative survey with scientists in eight countries."--Pierre Bréchon, co-editor with Frédéric Gonthier of European Values, Trends and Divides Over Thirty Years (2017)

" Science and Secularity provides a meticulously detailed look at how the social contexts of science and religion in different countries shape scientists' views of religion. No matter where one stands in debates about the relationship between science and religion, this book provides for the first time an important social scientific perspective that will be essential to how we understand the relationship between scientists and religious people as well as the university within society around the globe."--Dr Chantal Saint-Blancat, former associated Professor of Sociology, University of Padua

About the Author

Elaine Howard Ecklund is Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences at Rice University.
David R. Johnson is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at University of Nevada, Reno.
Brandon Vaidyanathan is Associate Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America.
Kirstin R.W. Matthews is Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
Steven W. Lewis is C.V. Starr Transnational China Fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
Robert A. Thomson Jr. is Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Alabama in Hunstville
Di Di is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Santa Clara University