The March on Science will take place in D.C. this weekend, in which scientists, science advocates and nerds in general will descend on the nation’s capital to protest slashed budgets and censorship of scientific findings.
Without a doubt, there will be some religious folks there too, but America has perceived religion and science to be at each other’s throats since the Scopes Monkey Trial, but a new study throws a bit of nuance into that perception. It seems Americans tend to think science and religion are at odds … except where their own personal religious beliefs are concerned.
That’s according to the folks at PRRI, who found that while 54 percent of Americans believe “science and religion are often in conflict” only 38 percent believe that “science conflicts with my own religious beliefs.”
Jewish people are the least likely to believe science conflicts with their beliefs, with a mere 17 percent of Jews seeing any tension between science and their views. White evangelicals are the most likely, with 52 percent seeing tension (they’re only religious group in which the majority see a conflict between their beliefs and science).
In the meantime, white mainline Protestants are the only religious group in which the majority don’t see any conflict between science and religion (only 42 percent do).
In general, most Americans (54 percent) believe science and religion often are in conflict.
