The Survey Data on Science and Religion

Jerry Coyne has a new post--really, a long quotation--about this subject. Linking to a Pew essay relating many important public opinion stats on science and religion in America, Dr. Coyne observes that these data show science and religion aren't really compatible, "but Chris Mooney tweaks them a bit to claim the opposite." I am not aware of having "tweaked" any survey data. At issue is this post of mine, which doesn't even directly report any of the data--it merely links the Pew essay, quotes its conclusion, and broadly interprets the data therein differently than Dr. Coyne now interprets them. Let us assume that Dr. Coyne actually disagrees with my interpretation of the data, and is not really accusing me of data manipulation. Indeed, so far as I can tell the data themselves are completely uncontested by both of us. What is very contested, though, is what these data mean for the debate we are having over accommodationism. So let's dig into that question. Coyne quotes the following passage from Pew's David Masci, and suggests that it demonstrates science-religion incompatibility (Coyne's emphasis included):