How many modern mathematicians believe in God or a Supreme Being?

[GAT128]

I’m talking about any mathematician who is alive today (or died within the last two years).

I’ve read various statistics on belief in God with respect to the physical, chemical and biological sciences. However, mathematicians never seem to be mentioned.

So do we have any rough figures (say percentage of mathematicians) for belief in God? Are the numbers higher or lower than that of the other scientific disciplines? Are there any reasons posited for the proportion of believers/disbelievers in mathematics?

[aahala]

Being an armchair mathematician myself, I’ll take a crack at it.

Let x=number of mathematicians alive or have died in the last 2 years.
y=number of mathematicians agnostic or atheist

Then we can expect the percentage believing in God to be:

(x-y)/x

[Squink]

@aahala

(x-y)/x

That would give the FRACTION believing in God. The formula for the percentage believing in God is slightly more complex:
F = 100 X (x-y)/x

[ultrafilter]

I can’t think of any reason why the percentage for mathematicians would be significantly different from that for the population at large.

[hajario]

@ultrafilter

I can’t think of any reason why the percentage for mathematicians would be significantly different from that for the population at large.

I can. People with college degrees are less likely to believe in God, people with advanced degrees even more so and people with advanced science degrees even more so. I don’t see why mathematicians would be different than others with advanced science degrees though.

Haj

[ultrafilter]

@hajario

I can. People with college degrees are less likely to believe in God, people with advanced degrees even more so and people with advanced science degrees even more so. I don’t see why mathematicians would be different than others with advanced science degrees though.

Haj

You might be surprised at the number of mathematicians who don’t consider what they do science.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@hajario

I don’t see why mathematicians would be different than others with advanced science degrees though.

I would guess that a mathematician would be more concerned that his/her beliefs be logically consistent, while a scientist would care more that his/her beliefs be empirically verifiable.

[Chronos]

First, define what you mean by “God”, and then define what you mean by belief in Him.

No, really, I’m serious, here. A technically-minded person in general is likely to have a very technically-specified set of beliefs (whatever they are), and so the answer to such questions is very likely to depend on exact definitions of terms.

[Josh_dePlume]

I saw the results of a survey a few years ago that asked scientists in various fields whether they believed in god. The numbers were surprisingly high, and mathematicians were higher than the other fields (though not by much). Sorry, I don’t have a cite.

[Mathochist]

@Chronos

First, define what you mean by “God”, and then define what you mean by belief in Him.

No, really, I’m serious, here. A technically-minded person in general is likely to have a very technically-specified set of beliefs (whatever they are), and so the answer to such questions is very likely to depend on exact definitions of terms.

How’s this: I’m a strong agnostic, so I don’t count for either side, thus falsifying the simplistic formulae from earlier.

For those who don’t know already, weak agnosticism is “I don’t know” and strong agnosticism is “I don’t know because it isn’t knowable”.

[Squink]

1998 survey

the survey asked members of the National Academy of Sciences to indicate if they believe, disbelieve or are agnostic regarding the existence of God and immortality.
…
Of those who profess a belief in God, the highest percentage was found among mathematicians (14.3 percent) and the lowest was found among biological scientists (5.5 percent). Among physicists and astronomers, 7.5 percent profess belief in God.