Rationality and the “Religious Mind” [Stark, Iannacone, Finke]
Rodney Stark; Laurence R. Iannaccone; Roger Finke
Abstract: Scholars have long viewed religion as the irrational product of primitive minds and pre-scientific times. Economic perspectives were deemed irrelevant to the study of religion, and the secularization thesis, positing religious decline in the face of scientific advancement, dominated religious research. But a growing body of evidence challenges these traditional assumptions. The data suggest that religious involvement is associated with normal mental health, is sensitive to perceived costs and benefits, and is compatible with graduate education and scientific training. Professors, scientists, and other highly educated Americans are less religious than the general population, but these differences are comparable to the religious differences associated with gender, race, and other demographic traits. Within academia, religious faculty are far more common in the “hard” sciences than in the humanities or social sciences.
File: Iannaccone - Rationality and the Religious Mind-D.pdf [103.68KB]
Published 04/11/1997
Filed under: (1997), *finke, *iannaccone, *stark, faculty, rationality, religiosity, scientists, secularization