Research Library

In a study for the British Journal of Political Science, the authors found that Muslim religious leaders weaken their perceived religious authority when they engage with politics.

The author shows that mosque construction in Islamic states increased after 1979, when political elites adopted a strategy of Islamic nation-building. Mosques visually manifested a regime’s religious authority. The findings have implications for understanding the use of symbolic religious structures as tools for nation-building — a goal that is often overlooked due to the tendency to associate nationalism with secular visions of modernity.

The authors compare views on the relationship between faith and health for two groups that are overrepresented in American Christianity and underrepresented in medical careers (African Americans and Latinos) with a group that is similarly religious but comparatively well-represented in medical professions (Korean Americans).

The authors investigate whether stance of a religious tradition toward capitalism will help shape individual scientists’ views on science commercialization and whether the religious tradition of scientists correlates with their attitude toward the commercialization of science.

Data from a survey of 892 scientists in Taiwan demonstrate that while scientists perceive religion and scientific research as generally separate in the abstract, in practice, they regard the boundary between religion and their workplace as somewhat permeable.

Both black Americans and Latinos have concerns about science teachers being biased. Yet, the groups differ in their assessment of the danger of anti-religious bias, according to findings by the authors. Published by Review of Religious Research.

Drawing on a nationally representative survey of US adults, the authors examine what factors — when individuals have a question about science — shape respondent’s likelihood of turning to science-based versus religion-based sources.

The authors examine whether Italian scientists have experienced any religious shifts and how they went through these shifts, addressing personal secularization theories by analyzing whether and how scientists reconstruct their religious identities by utilizing science. Published by Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences

Using national survey data the authors examine how the presence of religion in the workplace affects an individual’s perception of religious discrimination and how this effect varies by the religious tradition of the individual. Published by Review of Religious Research

This study of biologists and physicists in the UK found that a majority of the respondents disagree with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ “celebrity scientist” outreach approach and believe his work misrepresents science and the scientific research process.