14 DAY TRIAL // An interesting study conducted by experts at the Rice University reveals that a large number of scientists believe that science and spirituality can go hand in hand in boosting scientific discovery. At the same time, religion was not found to have the same potential.
The survey demonstrated that 1 in 5 atheist scientists is spiritual, in the truest sense of the word. Many religious denominations have hijacked this concept, making it synonymous with religion, but the fact of the matter is that it's not.
Spirituality aligns with scientific discovery more close than religion does, indicates a new study detailing the findings, which will appear in the June issue of the journal Sociology of Religion.
Rice experts conducted the investigation on 275 participants, who were mainly natural and social scientists based at elite universities around the country. Of the test subjects, 72 said that they were spiritual, but underlined that this did not meant they were formally religious.
This group of experts said that spirituality and science can make sense and have meaning without the presence of faith in gods. They acknowledge that this interaction is in fact a never-ending quest for knowledge, that can never be completed in a lifetime.
The main thing that separates spirituality from religion is that the former accepts and even supports scientific inquiries, whereas the other does not. Religion in fact calls for a blind faith in an absolute “absence of empirical evidence,” which is something that scientists find very hard to do.
“Our results show that scientists hold religion and spirituality as being qualitatively different kinds of constructs,” explains the lead author of the new investigation, Rice assistant professor of sociology Elaine Howard Ecklund.
“These spiritual atheist scientists are seeking a core sense of truth through spirituality – one that is generated by and consistent with the work they do as scientists,” she goes on to say.
“There's spirituality among even the most secular scientists. Spirituality pervades both the religious and atheist thought. It's not an either/or,” Ecklund reveals.
“This challenges the idea that scientists, and other groups we typically deem as secular, are devoid of those big 'Why am I here?' questions. They too have these basic human questions and a desire to find meaning,” she concludes.