So, what IS the professor thinking...?

"A common perception of the college or university professor is that she or he is an atheist who rejects religion in favor of science or critical inquiry. "

According to a "working paper" (posted on Scot McKnight's blog, JesusCreed) entitled "HOW RELIGIOUS ARE AMERICA’S COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS?", researchers Neil Gross (Harvard University) and Solon Simmons (George Mason University) discovered that only 23.4 percent of university professors claimed to be agnostic or athiest. Now, this is much higher than that of the general US population and, even more appropriately, the college educated, "with about 11.2 percent of those with four years of college or more falling into the ranks of atheists and agnostics." So, while there is a marked difference in academia, "atheists and agnostics are in the minority among professors as a whole."

Here are some of the findings of the research:















1. Professors teaching in religiously-affiliated colleges and universities are more likely to be
believers (non-athiest/agnostic). (As expected...)
2. Professors at elite doctoral universities are much less religious than professors teaching in other kinds of institutions. (No surprise here either...)
3. Atheists and agnostics are more common in some disciplines than others.
Psychology and biology - 61 percent.
Mechanical engineering - 50 percent (shoot! come on fellow ME's!)
Economics, political science, and computer science - 4o percent

There are several other aspects to these findings and many other findings as well in the paper, which I encourage you to check out if you have the time.

So, I just thought this is a helpful piece to help us to be aware of what is probably going on in the professor's head, whether we agree with it or not. The situation is not as extreme as most evangelical Christians might first think, but, especially at elite doctoral universities you will run into many who are avowedly athiest/agnostic and probably more vocal about it, to boot.

Please pray that Jesus Christ, who became for us the wisdom of God, would redeem the dark places of the universities and bring light and life to the professors and all that they "profess".