Study: Most Americans believe science conflicts with religion — except their personal religious beliefs
Many Americans think science and religion are at odds, but not with their own religion — just other people’s.
According to a study conducted by PRRI, 54 percent of Americans believe “science and religion are often in conflict,” but only 38 percent believe that “science conflicts with my own religious beliefs.”
Jewish people were the least likely to see science as being in opposition to their religious beliefs. Only 17 percent of Jews say science conflicted with their beliefs. The religiously unaffiliated (73 percent), white mainline Protestants (63 percent), and Catholics (55 percent) agree there is no tension between their religious beliefs and science.
In contrast, a majority of white evangelical Protestants (52 percent) say science did not mesh with their faith.
Black Protestants’ thoughts split down the middle: 50 percent say science clashes with their religious beliefs, while nearly as many (47 percent) felt the opposite.
With the March for Science taking place April 22, which is Earth Day, in Washington D.C., PRRI expects some religious to participate in the event. Such groups have attended climate change protests in the past, PRRI noted.
The study was based on the group’s climate change report. They wanted “to better understand the perceived tension between religion and science — and how it differs when considering one’s own religious beliefs.”
