AAAS Hosts Holiday Event: What Do Scientists Believe?

AAAS is sponsoring an important event pegged to the Holidays.  Details are below and readers in Washington, DC can register to attend the event at the AAAS Web site.

As I’ve written, the proportion of scientists who are religious is often greatly underestimated in popular discussion and this has profound implications for public engagement around key policy debates such as the teaching of evolution.

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

Please join us for 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 will describe her recent major study of scientists, and NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty will consider the results in light of the media’s coverage of science and religion and her own experiences in engaging with the public.

Sponsored by

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion and Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology.

December 15, 2010

5:30 — 6:30 p.m. Holiday Reception, 1st floor

6:30 — 8:00 p.m. Lecture and Discussion, 2nd floor

AAAS Headquarters

12th and H Streets NW

Washington, DC 20005

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

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

See also:

Nisbet, M.C. & Scheufele, D.A. (2009). What’s Next for Science Communication? Promising Directions and Lingering Distractions. American Journal of Botany, 96 (10), 1767-1778. (PDF).

Pew Survey of Scientists & the Public: Implications for Public Engagement and Communication

Sagan: Framing shared values between science & religion

At Point of Inquiry, Communicating about Science & Religion

AAAS Panel: Communicating Science in a Religious America

At AAAS, a Focus on the “New Atheist Confessional”

The Scientist Delusion? Nature Column on AAAS Panel