A recent study published in Psychology of religion and spirituality Explore the relationship between belief systems and perceptions of science and religion. It found that individuals with strong religious beliefs tend to see science and religion as compatible, while those who strongly believe in science are more likely to perceive conflict. These findings provide new insights into how different meaning systems shape people’s understanding of the relationship between these two domains.
The relationship between science and religion has been a topic of debate for centuries. Some view them as complementary ways of understanding the world, while others see them as fundamentally opposing. Previous studies have often focused on contexts in which science and religion are compared directly or side by side, leaving unanswered questions about how belief in one influences perceptions of their compatibility independently of the other.
The researchers aim to address this gap by examining the extent to which belief in science and religion, as two different systems of meaning, predicts perceptions of compatibility or conflict between science and religion. By recruiting participants from diverse cultural and religious contexts, the researchers sought to provide a broader understanding of how these beliefs interact across different settings.
“My main research interest lies in understanding how people find meaning and understand reality,” said the study author. Natalia ZarzychnaAssistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Essex. “I see science and religion as systems of meaning that each can contribute to finding meaning by answering epistemological (what are the origins of the universe?) and existential (does life have meaning?) questions. I am interested in understanding how people create worldviews based on science and religion to explain reality, the extent to which these worldviews have the capacity to provide different kinds of meaning, and whether they conflict.
The study included 684 participants from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan. These countries were chosen for their varying levels of religiosity and cultural backgrounds: the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are predominantly secular with Christian minorities, while Kazakhstan is a Muslim majority country.
Participants completed an online survey designed to measure their belief in science and religious belief as independent constructs. Belief in science was assessed by participants’ agreement with statements regarding the reliability and comprehensiveness of science as a means of understanding reality, without explicitly comparing it to religion. Likewise, religious belief was measured by self-reported religiosity, focusing on participants’ personal faith and spiritual practices without reference to science.
To assess perceptions of compatibility between science and religion, participants rated the extent to which they saw harmony or conflict between science and religion, especially regarding ontological and existential questions, such as the origins of life and the universe.
Across all countries, participants with stronger religious beliefs were more likely to perceive science and religion as compatible. This association persisted regardless of participants’ level of belief in science, suggesting that religious individuals often incorporate scientific principles into their worldview without seeing them as a threat to their faith.
In contrast, strong belief in science was associated with perceptions of conflict between science and religion. Participants who viewed science as the best way to know tended to view religious beliefs as incompatible with scientific principles. This finding reflects the different epistemological foundations of the two systems: science relies on empirical evidence and natural laws, while religion often includes supernatural explanations.
“Religious people can combine multiple sources of meaning and use both science and religion to find meaning in their lives,” Zarzyczna told PsyPost. “It appears that believers in science are merely using science and may be looking for additional sources of meaning elsewhere.”
Interestingly, the association between belief in science and perceived conflict was stronger in more secular countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, while the association of religious belief with conformity was particularly pronounced in the Muslim-majority context of Kazakhstan.
Zarzychna also highlighted an “interesting contradiction.” The researchers discovered that people with strong religious beliefs were more likely to view science and religion as compatible. However, they also found that stronger religious beliefs were associated with weaker belief in science.
“While religious believers, in both Christian and Islamic contexts, strongly believe in the compatibility of science and religion, they also show low faith in science as a means of understanding reality,” Zarzychna explained. “This is counterintuitive because belief in the compatibility between science and religion should logically stem from a combination of equally positive (or negative) attitudes toward each. It is possible that the ability to combine two sources of meaning, science and religion, reduces the perceived usefulness of each as a good means.” To understand reality.
The researchers controlled for age, gender, level of education, political orientation, spirituality, religious upbringing, religious belief, years of formal education, and scientific literacy. However, like all research, this study has some caveats.
“We looked at just one aspect of attitudes toward science—belief in science as the best way to understand reality—to examine how it contributes to beliefs in the compatibility of science and religion,” Zarzychna noted. “Although it is likely that other aspects of scientific attitudes (such as scientific optimism) are associated with conflict beliefs to the same extent as belief in science, it is important to address this directly in future research.”
“Our study also does not explain why religious believers and believers in science have conflicting views on the relationship between science and religion. It would be interesting to test what psychological needs or motivations, beyond social and cultural influences, contribute to these perceptions of compatibility and incompatibility.”
However, by exploring these dynamics across diverse cultural and religious contexts, the research opens new ways of understanding how individuals reconcile—or fail to reconcile—different ways of knowing. Future studies can build on this work to examine the psychological and cultural factors that shape perceptions of agreement and conflict.
“Using unobtrusive physiological methods to measure arousal, which are free of self-report biases, we attempt to determine whether perceptions of compatibility between science and religion constitute an important worldview for religious individuals and how motivated religious individuals defend the compatibility view when threatened.” Zarzychna said.
“If readers are interested in learning more about the relationship between science and religion, we review the latest literature on this topic in a book chapter in the journal Handbook of existential psychology To be published in 2025: Zarzeczna, N. & Haimila, R. (2025). Science and religion: meaning-making tools competing to explain the world. K. Phil, III, et al. (eds.) Handbook of existential psychology“.
the study “The feeling is not mutual: Religious belief predicts compatibility between science and religion, but scientific belief predicts conflict.written by Natalia Zarzyczna via email to the author, Jesse L. Preston, Adil Samkin, Carlotta Reinhart, Aydos Bulatov, Zukra Musinova, Orazjali Seltyev, Gulmira Topanova, and Bastian T. Rotjens.
