Czy nauka zagraża wierze? Biograficzne uwarunkowania wiary ukraińskich przyrodników
Is Science a Threat to Faith? The Biographical Dimensions of Faith Among Ukrainian Natural Scientists

Summary/Abstract: Academic research in different countries reveals that academic scientists are less religious than the general public. The attempts of the sociologists, mainly American, to understand this phenomenon show its complex character that involves both epistemological (science i religion conflict paradigm) and social (socio-biographical dimension) aspects. The article investigates this topic focusing on the case of Ukraine, the country that was not previously examined in this regard. It aims to determine whether science as a professional activity is related to the lower religiousness among Ukrainian natural scientists. It also reconstructs the religious dynamics in their biographies which take place against a backdrop of the turbulent Soviet and post- Soviet history of Ukraine. The analysis is based on the 50 in-depth interviews with physicists and biologists employed in the research institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The author concludes that science not only has no negative effect, but, on the contrary, promotes the religious worldviews in this group. She also shows a strong association of the religious trajectories in the studied biographies with the socio-political changes in the country of the late 1980s.

• Details
• Contents