The authors of this review both teach at religiously affiliated liberal arts colleges and are convinced that the “science and religion” interchange is important for what we do as physics educators. We are deeply invested in teaching about science and attempting to build public science literacy, and look for issues that can enhance or obstruct our attempts to educate our various audiences about the nature of science. The apparent divergence between scientists’ reported attitude toward religion (the oft-quoted 7% of responding National Academy of Sciences natural scientists professing belief in a personal God1) and the American public’s near-orthogonal attitude (with only 4% self-identifying as atheist or agnostic2) can be or can readily be perceived as one such obstacle. It is perhaps a commonplace to note that both science and religion influence life in the public forum, particularly in matters of policy.
The science and religion sections...
