Coexisting Religious And Scientific Beliefs Among Iranian Parents

Adults in the United States often assume that science and religion conflict because they make competing claims about important domains, such as the origin of species, or the age of the earth. We examined whether this conflict is also assumed in a culture with a different religious tradition. We questioned parents in Iran, a Muslim majority society governed by an Islamic theocracy, about the relationship between science and religion. Iranian parents endorsed the importance of science at high levels regardless of their level of religiosity. This finding adds to the growing body of evidence challenging the assumption that science and religion are perceived as conflicting with each other. The results imply caution in generalizing from U.S. participants and point to the need for further research on non-Western traditions.