AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion

What Do Scientists Believe? Religion Among Scientists and Implications for Public Perceptions

AAAS CEO Alan Leshner with speakers Elaine Howard Ecklund and Barbara Bradley Hagerty.

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On December 15, 2010 DoSER and the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology hosted a lively discussion about the religious beliefs of scientists and the implications for dialogue between the scientific and religious communities. Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund described her recent major study of scientists, and NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty discussed the results in light of the media’s coverage of science and religion and her own experiences in engaging with the public.

Read the press release following the event.

Welcoming Remarks:

Alan I. Leshner, Chief Executive Officer, AAAS and Executive Publisher, Science

Jennifer Wiseman, Program Director, DoSER

Speaker:

Elaine Howard Ecklund, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Director, Religion and Public Life Program, Rice University, and Author, Science Vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, Oxford University Press, 2010

Discussant:

Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR Religion Correspondent, and Author, Fingerprints of God: In Search of the Science of Spirituality, Riverhead Hardcover, 2009

Discussion:

Moderated by Jennifer Wiseman