Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology in the
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...
Department of
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
, director of the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice, and a Rice scholar at the
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. She is also a faculty affiliate in the Rice Department of Religion. Ecklund received a B.S. in
human development Human development may refer to:
* Development of the human body
* Developmental psychology
* Human development (economics)
* Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development
* Human evolution
Human evoluti ...
and an M.A. and Ph.D. in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
. Her research focuses on institutional change in the areas of
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
,
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
,
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
, and
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
. She has authored numerous research articles, as well as five books with
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, a book with
New York University Press
New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University.
History
NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown.
Directors
* Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–1 ...
, and a book with
Brazos Press. Her latest book is ''Varieties of Atheism in Science'' (Oxford University Press, 2021) with author David R. Johnson.
''Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think''
Ecklund's 2010 book, ''Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think'', is a systematic study of what scientists actually think and feel about religion. In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. Ecklund concluded that "Much of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. The 'insurmountable hostility' between science and religion is a caricature, a thought-cliche, perhaps useful as a satire on
groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness ...
, but hardly representative of reality."
[ Dreher, Rod (April 30, 2010)]
"Science vs. Religion: What do Scientists Say?"
Beliefnet
Beliefnet is a lifestyle website featuring editorial content related to the topics of inspiration, spirituality, health, wellness, love and family, news, and entertainment.
History
Launched in 1999 by Steven Waldman and Robert Nylen, Beliefnet ...
. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
In her book she mentions her most recent finding that at least 50% of scientists consider themselves to have religious traditions. Some of Ecklund's other findings about scientists' self descriptions:
* 34% were atheist (12% of which also call themselves spiritual), 30% were agnostic, 27% had some belief in God (9% have doubts but affirm their belief, 5% have occasional belief, 8% believe in a higher power that is not a personal God), and 9% of scientists said they had no doubt of God's existence. While more atheistic than the rest of the U.S. population, the research demonstrates that about a third (36%) of these scientists maintain some belief in God, a considerably smaller proportion than the approximately 90% in the general American population.
* Most scientists who expressed some belief in God considered themselves "religious liberals".
* Some atheist scientists still considered themselves "spiritual".
* Religious scientists reported that their religious beliefs affected the way they think about the moral implications of their work, not the way they practice science.
Ecklund says that scientists who believe in God may live "closeted lives" to avoid discrimination. Others are, what she calls, "spiritual entrepreneurs", seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion. The book centers on portraits of 10 representative men and women working in the natural and social sciences at top American research universities. Ecklund reveals how scientists—believers and skeptics alike—struggle to engage the religious students in their classrooms. She argues that many are searching for "boundary pioneers" to cross the picket lines separating science and religion and overcome the
"conflict thesis".
Criticism
Jason Rosenhouse, an associate professor of mathematics at
James Madison University
James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...
, is critical of some of Ecklund's research summaries. In particular, he contests her claim that "As we journey from the personal to the public religious lives of scientists, we will meet the nearly 50 percent of elite scientists like Margaret who are religious in a traditional sense" (page 6, Ecklund, 2010). Rosenhouse says that "religious in a traditional sense" is never clearly defined. He suggests that she may be referring to her finding that 47% of scientists affiliate themselves with some religion, but says that calling them "religious in a traditional sense" is therefore misleading, because only 27% of scientists have any belief in a God, even though many more than that associate with religious cultures.
Other work
In 2006, Ecklund published ''Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life'', an examination of the civic narratives, practices, and identities of second-generation
Korean-American evangelicals. The book looks at how Korean Americans use religion to negotiate civic responsibility, as well as to create racial and ethnic identity. The work compares the views and activities of second generation Korean Americans in two different congregational settings, one ethnically Korean and the other multi-ethnic, and includes more than 100 in-depth interviews with Korean American members of these and seven other churches around the country. It also draws extensively on the secondary literature on immigrant religion, American civic life, and Korean American religion. The book was reviewed in several academic journals.
Ecklund's completed research projects include the Religion among Academic Scientists (RAAS) study; the Religion, Immigration, Civic Engagement (RICE) study; the Perceptions of Women in Academic Science (PWAS) study; the Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) study; the Ethics among Scientists in International Context (EASIC) study; the Religion among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) study; the Religion, Inequality, and Science Education (RISE) study; and research on religion and medicine.
Ecklund's research project, Religion among Scientists in International Context (RASIC), is the largest cross-national study of religion and spirituality among scientists. The project was funded by a multimillion-dollar grant from the
Templeton World Charity Foundation. The study began with a survey of biologists and physicists at different points in their careers at top universities and research institutes in France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States—national contexts that have very different approaches to the relationship between religious and state institutions, different levels of religiosity, and different commitments to scientific infrastructure—and was followed by qualitative interviews. The study surveyed 22,525 scientists, and 9,422 scientists responded to the survey; the study included qualitative interviews with 609 of these scientists. In 2016 Ecklund, along with co-authors, published "Religion among Scientists in International Context: A New Study of Scientists in Eight Regions" in the journal ''Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World''.
Funded by a grant from the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
, the Ethics among Scientists in International Context (EASIC) study explored how scientists understand ethical issues in relation to science, with particular attention to the ways scientists' perspectives on religion may or may not influence their ethical perspectives. To that end, researchers interviewed 211 physicists in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States about how they approach ethical issues associated with research integrity and the effects of industry financing.
Ecklund has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed social scientific, medical, and other journals. With an interest in translating academic research to a broader public, she has written blogs and essays for ''
The Scientist'', ''
The Chronicle of Higher Education
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to re ...
'', the
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...
, ''Science and Religion Today'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'', the ''
Huffington Post'' and the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
''.
Religion and Public Life Program
Ecklund served as the director of the Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...
from 2010 to 2022. The mission of the RPLP is to conduct top-notch research, train scholars, and engage local, national, and global communities by offering programs that advance dialogue about religion in the public sphere. The RPLP brings together scholars who study religion, religious leaders from different traditions, and students and community members from a variety of backgrounds and with diverse religious perspectives. The RPLP facilitates conversations about religion not only within the academy, but between the academy and the broader public. The RPLP was launched in 2010 as part of the Social Sciences Research Institute at Rice University.
Influence
Ecklund's work has been covered in ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'', ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'',
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
and other outlets.
*Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and David R. Johnson (2021). ''Varieties of Atheism in Science''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. .
*Ecklund, Elaine Howard (2020). ''Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us beyond Fear''. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press. .
*Ecklund, Elaine Howard, David R. Johnson, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Kirstin R. W. Matthews, Steven W. Lewis, Robert A. Thomson, Jr., and Di Di (2019). ''Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
*Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and Christopher P. Scheitle (2017). ''Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
*Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and Anne E. Lincoln (2016).
'. New York: New York University Press. .
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