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Almost all scientists answer the question posed in the title in the affirmative, for both personal and scientific reasons. The personal reason is that many scientists are religious individuals, although fewer scientists are religious (about 40 percent believe in a personal God) compared to the general American population (over 90 percent). For example, some of the most famous evolutionary scientists have been openly religious. The scientific reason is that the scientific method does not require an assumption that a supreme being (God) does not exist. What science does require is that, for the phenomena being investigated, this supreme being, or other supernatural beings, have not caused the results that are observed. Geneticist Richard Lewontin points out that science cannot coexist with belief in a deity that might intervene at any moment. A biologist must assume that no angel, demon, or God makes biological phenomena occur as they do today; and an evolutionist must assume that no supernatural being brought biological phenomena into existence in the first place. If it should happen that supernatural processes or beings did or do influence the operation of natural phenomena, then the scientific explanation will fail. It is not necessary to assume that supernaturally caused events never occur. A scientist need not deny miracles, but just not try to study them, or to use scientific credentials to try to get other people to believe them. Scientific investigation excludes a consideration of miracles, whether or not they occur. Therefore, science in general, and evolution in particular, do not prohibit religious belief.

Just because religious belief is permissible does not mean that it is a good idea. While evolutionary science and religious belief can mix, there may be so many points of contradiction in the minds of individuals that this mixture is unreasonable. This criticism comes from two directions. Adherents of creationism insist that evolutionary science contradicts what they consider to be true and correct religion; the kind of religion that is compatible with evolutionary science is, to them, a waste of time or worse. Many atheists insist that any scientist who maintains religious beliefs is not really thinking rigorously through the issues. Some believe that scientists who have religious beliefs are retaining mutually contradictory thoughts for reasons of personal satisfaction. For instance, many scientists who are Christians believe that "God is love" but that God has used natural selection, which is a painfully unfair process, as God's method of creation. Dawkins considers this a "delicious irony." From this viewpoint, the capacity for religion may be a product of evolution and may have played an important role during human prehistory, but religion is something that humans should now get rid of. Especially in the post-September 11 world, Dawkins says, one should see that religion (such as fundamentalist terrorism, of which all major religions have provided examples) does more harm than good. Flexible human minds should learn how to get along without it as much as possible, according to this viewpoint. . .

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