Secularization

• Published in: Science and Christianity pp. 29 - 41
• Main Author: Stump, J. B
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated 2016; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: A Secular Age; Charles Taylor; James Leuba; physical scientist; religious belief; secularization; social sciences
• ISBN: 1118625277; 9781118625279; 1118625137; 9781118625132
• DOI: 10.1002/9781119415206.ch3

This chapter addresses following questions: has religious belief among scientists declined, what else might we mean by "secularization" and what do Taylor and Buckley see as the root cause of secularization. Regardless of the interpretation of the religious beliefs of elite scientists, the data on religious belief of scientists in general is remarkable for remaining consistent over eight decades. James Leuba thought the reason for the slide toward secularism in the social sciences was obvious: the physical scientist can accept determinism in the domain of physical entities while maintaining a belief in divine intervention among the less understood phenomena of the social sciences. The difficulty in defining secularization is that it is dependent upon the definition of religion, which has itself been notoriously difficult to define. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor addresses the question of secularization in his massive bookA Secular Age, which developed out of his 1999 Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh.