Science and Secularization (2014-2021)

This Laureate Fellowship will explore the growth of science in the West and how it relates to a decline in the influence of religion. Specifically, it will investigate whether science has been a major cause of secularization, and whether the pattern of scientific advance and corresponding religious decline observed in most Western countries is a universal one. The research will thus address a major unresolved issue concerning the relations between religion, science and modernisation. It will also shed light on a crucial issue for global security¿namely, whether modernization leads inexorably to secular, liberal democratic states, or whether new forms of technologically advanced, yet intrinsically religious states are possible.