Government support for science in an era of resource constraint : exploring the role of religion

In recent years, much has been made in popular media of the purported conflict between religion and science. The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between multiple measures of religion and attitudes toward federal expenditures on science. This study uses data from the 2008 wave of the General Social Survey, a national probability sample of American adults. Using multinomial analysis, this study finds that biblical literalists are generally less likely to wish for the expansion of federal spending on science than others. This opposition to the expansion of federal spending on science was uninfluenced by more general attitudes toward science or distrust of either the government or social institutes. Denominational affiliation and frequency of church attendance were unrelated to views on federal scientific expenditures. Contrary to previous depictions, the relationship between religious belief and attitudes toward science is not inherently adversarial. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.