The public's views on the future of religion and science: Cross-national survey results

We present analyses of national survey data for samples of adults from 20 nations on views about. (a) the future importance of religion and (b) whether science will be a hindrance or a help to the world in the future. The surveys also asked whether respondents gave time to thinking about the meaning of life. We explore the correlations of this activity with the beliefs about religion and science. Among the results is evidence that people in the United States are more optimistic with respect to the futures of religion and science, and they more frequently contemplate the meaning of life, compared with people in other nations. The favorable views of religion and science are not very common across nations, while contemplation of life is very frequent. Both the beliefs about religion and about science are very modestly related to thinking about the meaning of life, with an interesting exception in the U.S. and Canadian cases. Alternate interpretations of the results are presented, along with suggestions for further research.