“Tried and Found Wanting”

Abstract

Sociologists have identified a variety of factors that lead religious individuals away from the beliefs, practices, and affiliations of their adolescence. A number of scholars suggest that exposure to science is an essential turning point in trajectories toward atheism, in part because in many Western contexts, scientists are less likely to be religious than the general public. Less than half of the atheist scientists in our study were exposed to religion as children. Survey data indicate that among these scientists, exposure to science was not—in their own terms—what led most toward atheism.