barriers that are difficult to overcome. Changing the gender and racial composition
of the scientific community will take more than simply adding a few women or minori-
ties; it will require changing the structure of the enterprise itself.Scientific Breakthroughs
Scientific breakthroughs happen much the same ways that religions change. In reli-
gion, everyone is taught to believe the same thing and interpret the sacred teachings
the same way, but occasionally someone comes along who begins to interpret them
a little differently and manages to convince others through sheer strength of charac-
ter (what Weber called “charisma”). “You have heard... ,” said Jesus, “but I say
unto you... ,” and his followers took his word over other teachings.
Often the charismatic leaders who seek to change religious teachings are branded
as heretics and condemned by religious authorities. Sometimes they are exiled or even
executed.
In a pathbreaking study of the history of science, Thomas Kuhn (1962), a theo-
retical physicist, proposed that science changes in a similar way. Instead of scientific
progress being gradual and linear, it is erratic and often unpredictable. Long periods
of dull routine science are punctuated by dramatic breakthroughs, just as long peri-
ods of religious stability are broken by revivals, reformations, and Great Awakenings.
Kuhn observed that, most of the time, scientists accept prevailing theories as true
and organize their experiments withinthe existing framework. At any one time, there
is a prevailing paradigm, or model, and scientists work within the paradigm. This is
what Kuhn calls “normal” science. Normal science follows social customs: Older,
more established scientists train younger ones to work within the existing fields of
knowledge. These younger scientists extend the reach of the paradigm, but they sel-
dom dare to challenge the paradigm itself. If they do, they often find they don’t get
published, receive research grants, or get tenure.
Yet sometimes, scientists doing normal science find results they cannot explain
by existing theories. Initially, the scientific establishment discredits these “anomalies”
(findings that differ from the norm) and gives the cold shoulder to the scientists. But
eventually, these anomalies are too numerous and too significant to ignore. And then,
the old paradigm is replaced by a new one, one that can explain the older research514 CHAPTER 15RELIGION AND SCIENCE
TABLE 15.6
Working Scientists: Employment in Science and Engineering by Gender and RaceSource:Adapted from National Science Foundation, 2006.FEMALE MALE WHITE ASIAN BLACK HISPANIC
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)All science and
engineering 27 73 75 14 4.3 4.3
Biological/life
scientist 43.3 56.5 76 14 3.7 4.2
Computer and
information scientist 27.6 72.4 71 18.2 5 3.9
Mathematical
scientist 60 40 76.5 11.6 7.4 3
Physical sciences 28.5 71.5 79 12.2 2.7 4
Engineers 11 89 77 12.5 3.3 5