• 80% of specialists believe in God!

     

    I just read an interesting article, entitled What do Philosophers Believe? by David Bourget and David J. Chalmers.  As the title suggests, the article concerns a survey on the beliefs of philosophers.  It also contains a very thorough discussion, but here are the main results (from Section 3, pp 11-12):

    1. A priori knowledge: yes 71.1%; no 18.4%; other 10.5%.

    2. Abstract objects: Platonism 39.3%; nominalism 37.7%; other 23.0%.

    3. Aesthetic value: objective 41.0%; subjective 34.5%; other 24.5%.

    4. Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes 64.9%; no 27.1%; other 8.1%.

    5. Epistemic justification: externalism 42.7%; internalism 26.4%; other 30.8%.

    6. External world: non-skeptical realism 81.6%; skepticism 4.8%; idealism 4.3%; other 9.2%.

    7. Free will: compatibilism 59.1%; libertarianism 13.7%; no free will 12.2%; other 14.9%.

    8. God: atheism 72.8%; theism 14.6%; other 12.6%.

    9. Knowledge claims: contextualism 40.1%; invariantism 31.1%; relativism 2.9%; other 25.9%.

    10. Knowledge: empiricism 35.0%; rationalism 27.8%; other 37.2%.

    11. Laws of nature: non-Humean 57.1%; Humean 24.7%; other 18.2%.

    12. Logic: classical 51.6%; non-classical 15.4%; other 33.1%.

    13. Mental content: externalism 51.1%; internalism 20.0%; other 28.9%.

    14. Meta-ethics: moral realism 56.4%; moral anti-realism 27.7%; other 15.9%.

    15. Metaphilosophy: naturalism 49.8%; non-naturalism 25.9%; other 24.3%.

    16. Mind: physicalism 56.5%; non-physicalism 27.1%; other 16.4%.

    17. Moral judgment: cognitivism 65.7%; non-cognitivism 17.0%; other 17.3%.

    18. Moral motivation: internalism 34.9%; externalism 29.8%; other 35.3%.

    19. Newcomb’s problem: two boxes 31.4%; one box 21.3%; other 47.4%.

    20. Normative ethics: deontology 25.9%; consequentialism 23.6%; virtue ethics 18.2%; other 32.3%.

    21. Perceptual experience: representationalism 31.5%; qualia theory 12.2%; disjunctivism 11.0%; sense-datum theory 3.1%; other 42.2%.

    22. Personal identity: psychological view 33.6%; biological view 16.9%; further-fact view 12.2%; other 37.3%.

    23. Politics: egalitarianism 34.8%; communitarianism 14.3%; libertarianism 9.9%; other 41.0%.

    24. Proper names: Millian 34.5%; Fregean 28.7%; other 36.8%.

    25. Science: scientific realism 75.1%; scientific anti-realism 11.6%; other 13.3%.

    26. Teletransporter: survival 36.2%; death 31.1%; other 32.7%.

    27. Time: B-theory 26.3%; A-theory 15.5%; other 58.2%.

    28. Trolley problem: switch 68.2%; don’t switch 7.6%; other 24.2%.

    29. Truth: correspondence 50.8%; deflationary 24.8%; epistemic 6.9%; other 17.5%.

    30. Zombies: conceivable but not metaphysically possible 35.6%; metaphysically possible 23.3%; inconceivable 16.0%; other 25.1%.

    I don’t pretend to understand what each question is about, and I had a lot of fun researching some of these topics.  But I was obviously interested in Item 8.  A whopping 72.8% of philosophers are atheists, with only 14.6% theists, and 12.6% somewhat undecided.

    Another point of interest is found in Table 9 (on p 19).  Of the philosophers specializing in Philosophy of Religion, only 20.87% are atheists, while 86.78% of philosophers without this specialization are atheists.  There seems to be two possible explanations for this:

    1. People who study philosophy of religion will inevitably discover that there are good reasons to believe in God, or
    2. People who study philosophy of religion probably chose that career path because they already believed in God.

    I have a strong suspicion that Option 2 is the more likely one.  But I doubt this will stop Christian apologists from claiming this survey shows that, when you ask the “experts”, theism is the most rational view!

     

    Category: AtheismGodPhilosophyTheism

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    Article by: Reasonably Faithless

    Mathematician and former Christian