Feb 13, 2023 07:11 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 14, 2023 01:48 AM by C C.)
https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/par...ce-in-usa/
EXCERPTS: Science and religion present two paradoxes in the United States. On the one hand, the U.S. is the undisputed world leader in science. Yet, the U.S. is also the wealthy industrialized country with the most widespread skepticism about science, most notably regarding climate change, vaccines, and evolution. How can those two seemingly incompatible facts be reconciled?
The other paradox is that both in the U.S. and in Europe, people’s adherence to religion has an average tendency to decrease with their income and with their educational level. Yet the U.S. is the most religious wealthy industrialized nation, despite its high average per-person income and educational level. How can those two seemingly incompatible facts be reconciled?
[...] What’s distinctive about science in the U.S. when compared against the most nearly similar countries in Western Europe?
[...] Since around 1960, the U.S. has been winning far more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country, and even more than the rest of the world’s countries combined... That recency of American scientific literacy helps explain why understanding of science has still not penetrated large sections of the American public...
[...] Now, let’s turn to three distinctive features of religion in the U.S. compared with the rest of the world, especially Western Europe: high religious commitment, high religious diversity, and strength of fundamentalism....
[...] We have the highest average income-per-person, and one of the highest levels of education, among countries with populations exceeding 10 million (i.e., excluding rich micro-nations such as Luxembourg). That would lead one to expect low average religious commitment in the U.S. In fact, measures of religious commitment are nearly twice as high in the U.S. as in Western European countries, among which only Ireland rivals us.
[...] We suggest that the U.S.’ religious history and diversity provide much of the explanation for the paradox of our high religious commitment, contrary to expectations based on income and education. Americans have now, and have had from colonial times, many different choices of religious affiliation between competing proselytizing religions and less mainstream organized forms of worship. With all of those options available for how to be religious, a large fraction of religious Americans take their own religion seriously. Our proliferation of choices strengthens religious commitment in the U.S.
In Western Europe, on the other hand, Catholics and Protestants fought bloody wars many centuries ago. They ended up in each country with a single national church, or else with just a few dominant churches that have been at equilibrium for a long time, and that no longer try to proselytize from each other. Religious affiliation in each Western European country has become “just” part of the national culture and identity package. One is born into one’s religion along with one’s language and culture, rather than one’s religion being a matter of separate individual choice.
As a matter of course, most Europeans have their children baptized, celebrate major religious holidays, and marry and die in the church—but otherwise don’t often attend church, don’t explore alternative religions, and don’t tell pollsters that religion plays a large and conscious role in their lives. Conflict between religion and science is mild or non-existent.
[...] U.S. religion is only part of the reason for U.S. skepticism towards science. The other major reason that we recognize is rooted in the U.S.’ deep commitment to the ideal of democracy (though not always to the realization of that ideal), and in the U.S.’ rejection of authority. The U.S. was founded as a nation on the ideal that “all men [sic] are created equal.” [...] That ideal ... contrasting with the ideal of authority and inequality as the bases for European governments at the time of our independence. Distrust of authority, and of those who claim special expertise, permeates American society. We are a hyperdemocracy, not just a democracy.
That egalitarian ideal of ours has many manifestations lacking in modern Europe—to the mutual astonishment of Americans and Europeans when they become aware of those differences. A homely manifestation is that American politicians portray themselves as just ordinary people [...] No European politician would adopt a nickname or conceal an earned doctorate degree.
[...] Although Americans hold that everyone is created equal, the cruel fact is that people end up very unequal. Some people have much more knowledge and imagination than do other people. In particular, scientists know far more about their specialty than do laypeople. That reality is taken for granted in Europe but causes much discomfort and denial in the U.S...
[...] However, science, in essence, is the discovery and explanation of the real world’s facts. There are no alternative facts. Policies based on untruths are doomed to failure—regardless of whether those policies result from religious beliefs, or from a broader rejection of authority... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Science and religion present two paradoxes in the United States. On the one hand, the U.S. is the undisputed world leader in science. Yet, the U.S. is also the wealthy industrialized country with the most widespread skepticism about science, most notably regarding climate change, vaccines, and evolution. How can those two seemingly incompatible facts be reconciled?
The other paradox is that both in the U.S. and in Europe, people’s adherence to religion has an average tendency to decrease with their income and with their educational level. Yet the U.S. is the most religious wealthy industrialized nation, despite its high average per-person income and educational level. How can those two seemingly incompatible facts be reconciled?
[...] What’s distinctive about science in the U.S. when compared against the most nearly similar countries in Western Europe?
[...] Since around 1960, the U.S. has been winning far more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country, and even more than the rest of the world’s countries combined... That recency of American scientific literacy helps explain why understanding of science has still not penetrated large sections of the American public...
[...] Now, let’s turn to three distinctive features of religion in the U.S. compared with the rest of the world, especially Western Europe: high religious commitment, high religious diversity, and strength of fundamentalism....
[...] We have the highest average income-per-person, and one of the highest levels of education, among countries with populations exceeding 10 million (i.e., excluding rich micro-nations such as Luxembourg). That would lead one to expect low average religious commitment in the U.S. In fact, measures of religious commitment are nearly twice as high in the U.S. as in Western European countries, among which only Ireland rivals us.
[...] We suggest that the U.S.’ religious history and diversity provide much of the explanation for the paradox of our high religious commitment, contrary to expectations based on income and education. Americans have now, and have had from colonial times, many different choices of religious affiliation between competing proselytizing religions and less mainstream organized forms of worship. With all of those options available for how to be religious, a large fraction of religious Americans take their own religion seriously. Our proliferation of choices strengthens religious commitment in the U.S.
In Western Europe, on the other hand, Catholics and Protestants fought bloody wars many centuries ago. They ended up in each country with a single national church, or else with just a few dominant churches that have been at equilibrium for a long time, and that no longer try to proselytize from each other. Religious affiliation in each Western European country has become “just” part of the national culture and identity package. One is born into one’s religion along with one’s language and culture, rather than one’s religion being a matter of separate individual choice.
As a matter of course, most Europeans have their children baptized, celebrate major religious holidays, and marry and die in the church—but otherwise don’t often attend church, don’t explore alternative religions, and don’t tell pollsters that religion plays a large and conscious role in their lives. Conflict between religion and science is mild or non-existent.
[...] U.S. religion is only part of the reason for U.S. skepticism towards science. The other major reason that we recognize is rooted in the U.S.’ deep commitment to the ideal of democracy (though not always to the realization of that ideal), and in the U.S.’ rejection of authority. The U.S. was founded as a nation on the ideal that “all men [sic] are created equal.” [...] That ideal ... contrasting with the ideal of authority and inequality as the bases for European governments at the time of our independence. Distrust of authority, and of those who claim special expertise, permeates American society. We are a hyperdemocracy, not just a democracy.
That egalitarian ideal of ours has many manifestations lacking in modern Europe—to the mutual astonishment of Americans and Europeans when they become aware of those differences. A homely manifestation is that American politicians portray themselves as just ordinary people [...] No European politician would adopt a nickname or conceal an earned doctorate degree.
[...] Although Americans hold that everyone is created equal, the cruel fact is that people end up very unequal. Some people have much more knowledge and imagination than do other people. In particular, scientists know far more about their specialty than do laypeople. That reality is taken for granted in Europe but causes much discomfort and denial in the U.S...
[...] However, science, in essence, is the discovery and explanation of the real world’s facts. There are no alternative facts. Policies based on untruths are doomed to failure—regardless of whether those policies result from religious beliefs, or from a broader rejection of authority... (MORE - missing details)
