For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about how misconceptions between science and faith are more complex than a simple conflict.
Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund has devoted much of the last decade to dismantling common stereotypes about religion and science, largely by surveying scientists and people of faith to find out what they actually think. Still, whenever she gives an interview on her work, the first question is always, So, is there a conflict between religion and science?
“I’m continually surprised about how interested people are in the religion and science interface,” Ecklund says. “This kind of conflict motif, I think, does sell, so I don’t feel cynical when journalists keep asking questions about it. But it shows me that we haven’t brought sufficient attention to our research. There are conditions under which science and religion conflict — saying it’s otherwise is just putting one’s head in the sand. But does there have to be a conflict? No.”