What Atheist Scientists Think about Science

Abstract

Many scientists have an intuitive understanding of the word science but find defining it a challenge. Definitions of science provide insight into how atheist scientists demarcate science from religion and whether they believe there are limits to what science can explain. Narratives of atheist scientists emphasize science as a methodology, as a changing body of knowledge, and as the opposite of (religious) belief. A majority of atheist scientists reject the idea that science provides the only way to understand the world, but a sizeable minority assert that science can explain everything, including morals, consciousness, and nonscientific disciplines of knowledge.