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Religion’s role in professors’ studies

By Kylie Reynolds

Oct. 20, 2010 2:07 a.m.

One of the principle tenets of the Baha’i faith is the agreement between science and religion: that religion without science is superstitious, and that science without religion lacks morality.

To Robert Kim-Farley, an epidemiology professor in the UCLA School of Public Health and a follower of the Baha’i faith, this is a guiding belief in his daily work as a professor.

In a profession dominated by logic and reason, academic professors are often perceived as lacking faith or spiritual beliefs.

The role of religion in academia, however, is not always so uniform.

More than three in five college professors consider themselves religious, with different academic departments varying in spirituality, according to the Spirituality in Higher Education study by the Higher Education Research Center at UCLA.

Another study published by Spirituality in Higher Education identified faculty in health sciences and education as the disciplines with the highest spirituality, while biological, physical and social sciences are regarded to have the lowest spiritual levels.

And although there is diversity among professors’ faith, more than half of faculty surveyed in the study disagree with the idea that the spiritual dimensions of faculty members’ lives have no place in academics.

The role of religion in academic studies

Kim-Farley was drawn to his profession in public health because of his belief in the Baha’i faith. As a physician with a master’s degree in public health, he chose a career that would allow him to work in the spirit of serving others as a form of worship, which is a principle of his religion.

“What I tried to do is say, “˜Where could I make an impact or how could I help mankind?’ And I thought that public health is very much a calling to social justice,” he said.

While religion plays a part in Kim-Farley’s professional life, he said disagreements have never arisen with his colleagues who hold different beliefs because religion is rarely discussed in the daily work in a department.

Although Juan Sanchez, an assistant English professor at UCLA, has not experienced a culture of religious intolerance in his profession, he said professors have to be careful about expressing spiritual affiliation to other colleagues.

“I think in higher education, one’s religious affiliation, to be blunt, is a liability,” he said. “I know how academia works, and I know some of the prejudices or skepticism toward certain religions.”

A Catholic, Sanchez said his decision to study English developed during his time at Biola University, formerly known as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.

Despite any hesitations Sanchez has about disclosing his spiritual background, he said his religion has never come in conflict with his studies as an assistant English professor, but rather his faith encourages the critical exploration that he pursues in his studies.

“Certain ideas about one’s affiliation with a religion would have you think that there would be a conflict, but everything that I was taught while in the English department not only told me there was no conflict but also that it was my responsibility, my duty, to investigate the world that was not fixed,” he said.

The role of academic studies in religion

For some professors, involvement in an academic department and exposure to other fields of studies have influenced their religious beliefs ““ or lack thereof.

“I am an atheist,” said Dan Ray, a microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics professor at UCLA.

Growing up in a Christian household, Ray recognized at a young age that he doubted religion. A true scientist at heart, Ray experimented with the tenets of the Christian religion, including throwing a Bible in a drainage ditch and using God’s name in vain.

But it was not until he grew older and gained more knowledge about the physical world, including the evolution of man, living organisms and the solar system, that he realized he thought there was no need for religion.

“The astronomy that we know about, the geology and the biology, all of that knowledge together suggests there is no need for a supernatural being,” he said. “As a young person, I was especially confused by the notion that God created everything. Well that was fine, but who created God? To evoke a god as a creator just pushed the problem back one level.”

In line with the results of the study, Ray said his beliefs are not different from many of the faculty in his field.

“The best scientists in the United States are members of the National Academy of Sciences, and supposedly a survey claimed that 93 percent of the National Academy did not believe in a supernatural god,” he said. “I would say among biologists, I suspect it is certainly in that range.”

And despite the role religion plays in professors’ studies, and vice versa, the Spirituality in Higher Education study said a minority of faculty did agree on one aspect of religion in the university setting: 30 percent of faculty do believe colleges should have a role of promoting students’ spiritual growth.

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Kylie Reynolds
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