Say someone believed that the moon was (quite literally) made out of cheese, or that little pink beings with green wings inhabited the depths of the Earth's core. Would you see this person as a rational thinker? If that person also happened to be a scientist — with an impressive education and and advanced qualifications — would you be skeptical about the merits of any ground-breaking study that person co-authored?
While I have gathered no data on this question, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that most people would trust such a person less — and therefore question any scientific work the person was engaged in as well.
We're in a minority. Some of us grew up without religion and never found cause to pick it up. Others were raised religiously and ditched their faith along the way. Yet others were raised culturally religious and may still appreciate the value of community (which religion can definitely facilitate) but don't really believe that God exists. Some, most notably the "new atheist movement", are quite militant about their atheism and hold religion to be irrational or even anti-rational.
These are the same sorts of people who may think that someone who believes in God is necessarily anti-science and can't do a good job in a scientific field. However, this belief is rarer than you might think — while I found a study that found atheist scientists aren't anti-religious on the whole, I found no evidence that most atheists actively believe Christians and other believers to be incapable of scientific or rational thought.
Let's examine this question — an interesting one, to be sure — a little further. You may discover that none of us are as rational as we'd like to think.
What Is Rational Thought?
Rational thought involves the process of using logic and reason to arrive at a conclusion. It's a key part of the scientific process, although there's much more to science than rational thought alone. Someone who tries to think rationally can attempt to identify flawed reasoning and to find evidence to get to the bottom of a question. When an argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny, logical thinkers are opening to changing their minds to adopt more correct or truthful views.
As far as religious believers go, some simply have faith. Others, having been exposed to religious beliefs, simply go along with, often because they recognize the value of religious communities and worship. (There is nothing irrational about this, as research — including surveys by the Pew Research Center — has consistently found that religious people are more likely to be happy.) Yet others have pondered the question of the existence of God long and hard, employing logic and reason — and, even short of physical evidence, come to the conclusion that God most likely exists.
Religious belief can bypass rational thought, but the two can also co-exist. Disagreeing with someone's conclusion doesn't necessarily mean the logic used to arrive at this conclusion was also flawed.
Don't We All Hold Irrational Beliefs?
Of course.
Irrational beliefs can, in this context, be defined as those beliefs we never truly examined — ones we picked up along the way and haven't subjected to any significant level of scrutiny.
Irrational beliefs span the whole spectrum of ideas. In the realm of psychology, irrational beliefs may take the form of negative self-talk, for example. Think "I'm worthless," "I'll never find someone to love me," or even "I don't have the willpower to stick with my diet."
They can also include stuff passed down through generations — "a nice chicken soup will clear my cold right up," "it's good to wear something old, something blue, something borrowed, and something new on your wedding day," or "eating after 8 pm will make me fat."
(Some of the things we irrationally believe may even be true, but if we have never questioned these truths, can we claim to have arrived at them rationally? I think not!)
The moral of the story? As an atheist, you may believe that believing in God is irrational — in the same way thinking the Earth is flat is. You may have a point, but how many of your beliefs go unexamined? Are you better than that Christian who thinks Jesus came back to life after three days, or whatever it was, if you also think black cats are bad luck? (Or insert other irrational belief here?)
What Is the Scientific Method?
The scientific method is the closest thing we have to a perfectly logical and evidence-based way to get the right (correct) answers. It's complex to engage in scientific research, but the scientific method itself can be summarized simply, as a four-step process:
- The scientific method starts by making observations in the physical world, about which questions can than be formulated.
- One then collects as much data as possible to get information relating to the observation and the questions posed. Based on this data, it then becomes possible to form a hypothesis — an assumption based on the evidence gathered thus far.
- Testing is the next step. It's good science to seek to disprove the hypothesis rather than cherry-picking only the data that leads to the answer you would like to get. If you don't get anywhere, no matter how hard you try to prove your hypothesis incorrect, it can stay in place. It's important to note that scientists should never predetermine an answer. That's not testing. That's manipulating data.
- Thorough analysis follows testing. Scientists can then make a conclusion. This conclusion is usually not a "correct forever" answer, but rather a "best we have for now" one.
Science involves a thorough process of peer reviews, wherein others in your field try to poke holes in your research.
Not all fields of study are scientific, of course — theology isn't a scientific field. But medical researchers who happen to be religious can engage in the scientific method as adequately as anyone else (who also holds irrational beliefs of one kind or another). Someone's belief in God or lack thereof isn't going to get in the way of science, because Christian scientists aren't going to claim that (for instance) God will magically make a vaccine appear.
Not all studies published today are of equal quality, and many would argue that political and personal beliefs do find their way into "science" quite often. Such studies can be identified by looking through the methodology and design, and judged on their merits (if you know how). However, an individual scientist's personal beliefs don't have to go anywhere near their work — and some scientists who also believe in God may indeed think they can "do his work" by helping humanity with scientific discoveries.
A Final Word
I've found no evidence that most atheists (and still fewer agnostics, who are "on the fence" about the existence of God) believe that Christians and other religious believers are incompetent at science. If you do have this belief, however, it may itself be irrational. Remember that no human is a perfectly rational being. It's important to be as rational as possible in the areas where this is important, such as science, but in other cases, it may be better to ask whether a belief helps or harms you. As far as God goes, many people find great solace in religious belief — sometimes even while excelling in a scientific career.
Your thoughts on this