In his just published final book, "Brief Answers to the Big Questions," physicist Satephen Hawking wrote, "There is no God. No one directs the universe" but in a universe where only 6% of what must exist is even matter that can be detected, the science community is unwilling to be as definitive as he was.
It may be that God is in the gaps, and different people have different definitions for what that is. Yet it may be perpetuating the false narrative that religion is on one pole and science is on another.
Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund, director of its Religion and Public Life Program, has been studying the intersection of science and religion since 2003 and notes that the overt secularism of science academia is an American thing; over half the scientists in India, Italy, Taiwan and Turkey self-identify as religious while nearly half of AAAS members in the U.S. also do.
In reality, only a small number on the fringes of science and religion believe science and religion are in conflict. And they are catering to their rabid fan bases while alienating the mainstream. Yet it is stronger in some countries. In the UK, whose cultures gave us both the anti-vaccine and anti-GMO movements, 32 percent of scientists believe religion is the enemy. Yet The Guardian science section will routinely publish activists opposed to science without objection, so UK scientists may be seeing bigger problems in their opposition in order to ignore the rampant undermining of reason by their political allies.
