Survey-based Research on Science and Religion: A Review and Critique

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-54
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

This chapter evaluates survey measures, primarily from the USA, on science, religion and beliefs about human origins. The bulk of the chapter offers a compilation of measures used in high quality, representative surveys. This scope is limited to the two most central types of items: those measuring beliefs about the relationship between science and religion and those measuring beliefs about evolution and human origins. Measures are analysed for trends over time and disaggregated by key measures of religious identity, practice, and belief. The chapter concludes with several critiques and considerations for improving survey-based analysis of science and belief. These critiques include a call for measures to be more carefully calibrated to how the public reflects on these issues. They also encourage the development of new measures on morality, progress, teleology (for both religion and science). Likewise, they argue that measures of social context (friends, family, congregations), and group identity and dynamics are often missed by conventional measures. Finally, the conclusion calls for careful attention to domains of conflict outside of human origins along with the development of techniques to avoid unintentionally priming conflict between religion and science.

An End to Incrementalism? The Impact of Expenditure Restraint on Social Services Budgets 1979–1986

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Total Budget ◽  
Service Departments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThe theory of incrementalism is a long-standing and influential perspective on policy making and resource allocation in the public sector. Previous research on social services budgeting suggests that resources are allocated incrementally, although there has been some debate as to whether this would persist in an era of prolonged expenditure restraint. Incremental budgetary outcomes are operationalised as percentage changes in budgets pro-rata with percentage changes in the total budget, and as stable shares of total expenditure for each activity. Data for 99 English social service departments supports incrementalism in that budget shares change by only 1.8 per cent, but percentage allocations depart from pro-rata incrementalism by a mean of 74 per cent. The comparison of the two summary indices over time supports those who have argued that prolonged restraint would encourage non-incremental budgeting, but change in the agency's total budget does not consistently predict budgetary outcomes. The effect of restraint on incrementalism varies with the measure used and across the component activities of the measures, but there is enough evidence to suggest a significant decline in the level of incrementalism in social service departments. In particular, non-incremental budgeting is strongly associated with the growth of day centre expenditure on the mentally ill and the elderly before 1982–3, and after that with the pursuit of the ‘community care’ strategy within state provided services for the elderly and children. Incrementalism as a general theory of agency budgeting is limited in its ability to explain variations in the degree of incrementalism between agencies, between component budgets and over time. The conclusion suggests that further research should seek explanations for these variations in the varying balance of the competing forces which shape outcomes in welfare bureaucracies and in the relationship between these forces and the organisation's environment.

scholarly journals Building Enthusiasm and Overcoming ‘Fear’: Engaging with Christian Leaders in an Age of Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Reid
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ministerial Training ◽  
Lay Reader ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Christian Leaders

In popular culture the relationship between science and religion has often been portrayed as one of conflict. The impact of the conflict thesis can be observed in church leaders’ hesitancy in talking about science and religion in the public domain. It was this finding that led Revd Professor David Wilkinson (cosmologist and theologian) and Professor Tom McLeish (physicist and Anglican lay reader) to form the project ‘Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science’ funded by The Templeton World Charity Foundation. The data presented in this article (collected during 2015-2018) is derived from two discreet pieces of research. The first consisting of a survey of over 1,000 church leaders and interviews with 20 senior church leaders and, the second, with a strategic focus on ministerial training comprised of 12 interviews with church educationalists. This paper reflects on the findings from both pieces of research – covering topics such as church leaders’ enthusiasm towards science, how church leaders view the relationship between science and religion and the role of compartmentalisation in ministerial training. The article is unique in providing sociological analysis on the relevant data and including a personal reflection by David Wilkinson – the project’s director – on the implications of the research for ministerial training and science.

scholarly journals Understanding Rockburst-Generating Behaviors and Associated Seismicity by Using a Spatial Calculation Methodology with an Energy Density Index

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Guifeng Wang ◽  
Xiaoyuan Yuan ◽  
Siyuan Gong ◽  
Linming Dou ◽  
Wu Cai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Density ◽  
Rockburst Hazard ◽  
Density Index ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
Calculation Methodology ◽  
Coal Rock ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
Strong Tremors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Rockbursts have become one of the most severe risks in underground coal mining. A proper understanding of the relationship between the spatial activities of mining-induced tremors and the occurrence of rockbursts can provide effective insight into the evaluation of rockburst hazard as well as revealing their causes. A methodology for spatially calculating the seismicity involving the use of an energy density index was developed to identify the evolution of mining-induced tremors over time. The results showed that numerous tremors occurred during the excavation and mining periods, and those tremors were distributed in a spatially complicated fashion, and it was difficult to identify their evolution trends over time and assess the rockburst hazard. However, energy density clouds had obvious distinguishable trends that presented nucleation characteristics and followed obvious extension around the nucleuses until strong tremors took place nearby. Velocity tomograms indicated that evolution of energy density clouds was the response to the rising stress concentration in some local areas before the rockburst. Then the rockburst-generating journey was inferred; that is, the jump of stress in local areas of coal-rock masses results in the clustering and nucleation of microfractures firstly, and then as the microfractures developed, macrofractures appeared, bringing strong tremors which triggered the rockburst.

scholarly journals Moving equilibria in the public health care sector: A low-quality trap and a resolution

2006 ◽  
Vol 2006 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Kara
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Policy Option ◽  
Health Care Sector ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Care Institutions ◽  
High Welfare ◽  
Over Time

This paper demonstrates the existence, in a particular subset of the Turkish public health care sector, of equilibria moving towards a low-quality trap over time. The dynamics of the movement in question hinges, in part, on the socially necessary but demographically asymmetric burden, on some public health care institutions, of providing affordable health care to certain sections of the population. The paper formulates a policy option that could help the sector to escape the trap, moving the sector towards high quality-high welfare equilibria.

scholarly journals Bridging the gap between geographic concept and the data we have: The case of labor markets in the USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 1395-1414
Author(s):  
Christopher S Fowler ◽  
Leif Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Research Question ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Regional Bias ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Over Time

A broad literature has made it clear that geographic units must be selected with care or they are likely to introduce error and uncertainty into results. Nevertheless, researchers often use data “off the shelf” with the implicit assumptions that their observations are consistent with the geographical concept relevant for their research question, and that they are of uniformly high quality in capturing this geographic identity. In this paper, we consider the geographical concept of “labor market” and offer a template for both clarifying its meaning for research and testing the suitability of extant labor-market delineations. We establish a set of metrics for comparing the quality of existing labor-market delineations with respect to the diverse meanings that researchers apply to the concept. Using the fit metrics established here, researchers can explore how delineations vary geographically, how they vary over time, and how this variation may shape research outcomes. Our assessment is that the quality of the extant delineations is relatively high overall. However, we find that different delineations vary significantly in the types of labor markets they represent, and that regional variations in fit within any given delineation may introduce noise or regional bias that merits consideration in any analysis conducted with these units. More broadly, the kinds of metrics we propose here have applicability for many other geographic entities where boundaries and scale can be only imperfectly defined.

scholarly journals Responding to Richard: Celebrity and (mis)representation of science

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Johnson ◽  
Elaine Howard Ecklund ◽  
Di Di ◽  
Kirstin R.W. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practice Of Science

Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews conducted with biologists and physicists at universities in the United Kingdom, this study examines scientists’ perceptions of the role celebrity scientists play in socially contentious public debates. We examine Richard Dawkins’ involvement in public debates related to the relationship between science and religion as a case to analyze scientists’ perceptions of the role celebrity scientists play in the public sphere and the implications of celebrity science for the practice of science communication. Findings show that Dawkins’ proponents view the celebrity scientist as a provocateur who asserts the cultural authority of science in the public sphere. Critics, who include both religious and nonreligious scientists, argue that Dawkins misrepresents science and scientists and reject his approach to public engagement. Scientists emphasize promotion of science over the scientist, diplomacy over derision, and dialogue over ideological extremism.

scholarly journals Kuyper’s razor? Rethinking science and religion, trinitarian scholarship and God’s eternity

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Coletto
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
Scientific Reflection ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This article explores three research fields in contemporary Christian scholarship and argues that the way they are approached is often questionable due to the basic assumptions, the methods or the implications. The following allegations are proposed. Research on the relationship between religion and science is based on a framework of assumptions which does not reflect the biblical standpoint properly. Trinitarian scholarship expects too much from the presumed correspondence between Trinity and created reality, whilst it tends to neglect other resources available to Christian scholarship. Scientific reflection on God’s eternity is speculative in as much as it tries to transcend the modal horizon of knowledge. In these three cases (other cases are also briefly mentioned) it is argued that ‘Kuyper’s razor’ (an approach promoted in the Kuyperian reformational tradition) would help rethinking research in these areas.Kuyper se skalpel? ’n Heroorweging van wetenskap-en-religie, trinitariese navorsing en God se ewigheid. Hierdie artikel verken drie navorsingsterreine in die kontemporêre Christelike wetenskap en voer aan dat die manier waarop hulle benader word dikwels bedenklik is weens basiese aannames, die metodes of die implikasies daarvan. Die volgende kritiek word voorgestel. Navorsing oor die verhouding tussen religie en wetenskap is op ’n raamwerk van aannames gebaseer wat nie ’n behoorlike weerspieëling van die skriftuurlike standpunt is nie. Trinitariese navorsing verwag te veel van die veronderstelde ooreenkoms tussen die Drie-eenheid en die geskape werklikheid, terwyl dit neig om ander hulpbronne wat vir die Christelike wetenskap beskikbaar is, te verwaarloos. Wetenskaplike besinning oor God se ewigheid is spekulatief vir sover dit poog om die modale horison van kennis te transendeer. Dit word aangevoer dat ‘Kuyper se skalpel’ (’n benadering wat in die Kuyperiaans-reformatoriese tradisie bevorder word) sal help om navorsing in hierdie drie gevalle (ander gevalle word ook kortliks genoem) te heroorweeg.

Religiosity and Political Attitudes in Turkey during the AKP Era

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Erdem Aytaç
Keyword(s):  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Positive Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the relationship between religiosity and political attitudes in Turkey during the incumbency of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). There were several restrictions on the public role and visibility of Islam in Turkey when the AKP came to power in 2002, and the party gradually lifted these restrictions over time. Did this change in the state’s policies and approach toward religion affect the political attitudes of devout Muslims? Analyses of a series of nationally representative surveys spanning the period 2002–2018 highlight that the AKP governments’ positive approach to Islamic religiosity in public life led to a rapprochement of devout Muslims with the political regime. There is no evidence that this rapprochement has been accompanied by a more pluralistic understanding of democracy, however, as more religious individuals tend to hold more populist attitudes than less religious ones.

Telementoring for remote simulation instructor training and faculty development using telesimulation

2020 ◽  
pp. bmjstel-2019-000512
Author(s):  
Isabel Theresia Gross ◽  
Travis Whitfill ◽  
Luize Auzina ◽  
Marc Auerbach ◽  
Reinis Balmaks
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Development ◽  
Feedback Form ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Instructor Training ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
High Quality Medical Care ◽  
Student Version ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Over Time

IntroductionSimulation-based training is essential for high-quality medical care, but it requires access to equipment and expertise. Technology can facilitate connecting educators to training in simulation. We aimed to explore the use of remote simulation faculty development in Latvia using telesimulation and telementoring with an experienced debriefer located in the USA.MethodsThis was a prospective, simulation-based longitudinal study. Over the course of 16 months, a remote simulation instructor (RI) from the USA and a local instructor (LI) in Latvia cofacilitated with teleconferencing. Responsibility gradually transitioned from the RI to the LI. At the end of each session, students completed the Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare (DASH) student version form (DASH-SV) and a general feedback form, and the LI completed the instructor version of the DASH form (DASH-IV). Outcome measures were the changes in DASH scores over time.ResultsA total of eight simulation sessions were cofacilitated of 16 months. As the role of the LI increased over time, the debrief quality measured with the DASH-IV did not change significantly (from 89 to 87), although the DASH-SV score decreased from a total median score of 89 (IQR 86–98) to 80 (IQR 78–85) (p=0.005).ConclusionIn this study, telementoring with telesimulations resulted in high-quality debriefing. The quality—perceived by the students—was higher with the involvement of the remote instructor and declined during the transition to the LI. This concept requires further investigation and could potentially build local simulation expertise promoting sustainability of high-quality simulation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document