A new study has indicated that Indian scientists are significantly more religious than UK scientists.
The first cross-national study of religion and spirituality among scientists showed that while 65 percent of U.K. scientists identify as nonreligious, only 6 percent of Indian scientists identify as nonreligious.
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice's Autrey Professor of Sociology and the study's principal investigator, said that India and the U.K. were at the same time deeply intertwined historically while deeply different religiously and there was a vastly different character of religion among scientists in the U.K. than in India.
Ecklund continued that according to available data, only 50 percent of the general U.K. population responded that they did not belong to a religion, compared with 65 percent of U.K. scientists in the survey and in addition, 47 percent of the U.K. population report never attended religious services compared with 68 percent of scientists.
According to the India survey, 73 percent of scientists responded that there were basic truths in many religions, 27 percent said they believed in God and 38 percent expressed belief in a higher power of some kind. However, while only 4 percent of the general Indian population said they never attended religious services.