Do scientists see conflict between science and faith? Which cultural factors shape the attitudes of scientists toward religion? Can scientists help show us a way to build collaboration between scientific and religious communities, if such collaborations are even possible? To answer these questions and more, the authors of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion completed the most comprehensive international study of scientists' attitudes toward religion ever undertaken, surveying more than 20,000 scientists and conducting in-depth interviews with over 600 of them. From this wealth of data, the authors extract the real story of the relationship between science and religion in the lives of scientists around the world. The book makes four key claims: there are more religious scientists than we might think; religion and science overlap in scientific work; scientists - even atheist scientists - see spirituality in science; and finally, the idea that religion and science must conflict is primarily an invention of the West. Throughout, the book couples nationally representative survey data with captivating stories of individual scientists, whose experiences highlight these important themes in the data. Secularity and Science leaves inaccurate assumptions about science and religion behind, offering a new, more nuanced understanding of how science and religion interact and how they can be integrated for the common good.

Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion

Politics & Social Sciences

Ecklund, Elaine Howard

Johnson, David R.

Vaidyanathan, Brandon

Matthews, Kirstin R.W.

Lewis, Steven W.

Thomson Jr., Robert A.

Di, Di

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

A significant number of Americans view atheists as immoral elitists, aloof and unconcerned with the common good, and they view science and scientists as responsible. Thanks in large part to the prominence and influence of New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, New Atheism has claimed the pulpit of secularity in Western society. New Atheists have given voice to marginalized nonreligious individuals and underscored the importance of science in society. They have also advanced a derisive view of religion and forcefully argued that science and religion are intrinsically in conflict. Many in the public around the globe think that all scientists are atheists and that all atheist scientists are New Atheists, militantly against religion and religious people. But what do everyday atheist scientists actually think about religion? Drawing on a survey of 1,293 atheist scientists in the U.S. and U.K., and 81 in-depth interviews, this book explains the pathways that led to atheism among scientists, the diverse views of religion they hold, their perspectives on the limits to what science can explain, and their views of meaning and morality. The findings reveal a vast gulf between the rhetoric of New Atheism in the public sphere and the reality of atheism in science. The story of the varieties of atheism in science is consequential for both scientific and religious communities and points to tools for dialogue between these seemingly disparate groups.

Varieties of Atheism in Science

Science & Math

Conrad Richter: A Writer's Life is the story of an aspiring writer who failed and then, desperate for money, tried again and wrote himself out of penny-a-word pulp magazines and into a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Based upon unrestricted access to all of Richter's letters, journals, notebooks, and private papers, this biography offers an intimate account of Richter's personal struggle to achieve success in his own and in other people's terms. 
Johnson's biography will engage anyone interested in the art of biography and in a novelist's act of writing. Admirers of Richter's novels will also find much of interest in his life. So, too, will those who find value in the story of a man who, despite his sense of himself as an imperfect vessel for God's plan for human evolution, lived his life with as much grace, determination, and courage as he could.

Conrad Richter: A Writer’s Life (Penn State Series in the History of the Book)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Penn State University Press

Conrad Richter: A Writer's Life is the story of an aspiring writer who failed and then, desperate for money, tried again and wrote himself out of penny-a-word pulp magazines and into a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Based upon unrestricted access to all of Richter's letters, journals, notebooks, and private papers, this biography offers an intimate account of Richter's personal struggle to achieve success in his own and in other people's terms. Johnson's biography will engage anyone interested in the art of biography and in a novelist's act of writing. Admirers of Richter's novels will also find much of interest in his life. So, too, will those who find value in the story of a man who, despite his sense of himself as an imperfect vessel for God's plan for human evolution, lived his life with as much grace, determination, and courage as he could.

Practical, tested, implementable real-world advice for transforming any business and is written by people that have “been there and done that”. 
Changing an organization is tough. Transformation is hard work that should not be attempted by the faint of heart or the weak of mind. But transformation is not rocket science either. By taking a realistic, simple and direct view of what is required to transform an enterprise, the authors reduce the noise and nonsense that surrounds much of the discussion of transformation and provide straight forward lessons, examples and thought provoking questions to guide the reader to a more powerful position as an agent of change. Based on the authors' decades of experience dealing with major business transformation, this book provides valuable guidance for any company engaged in large scale change brought on by shifts in the competitive landscape, mergers, acquisitions, or a major restructuring of their business model. Many organizations undergo transformation with lots of enthusiasm, but are frustrated with the results. This book contains a set of lessons gained in the process of working in and with organizations in the process of transformation. The book starts out by framing transformation and explains the overall system the enterprise that is involved in transformation. By doing so, clarity is brought to the question of why change is so difficult and problematic. What you can expect to get by reading this book is: <ul>
<li>A way of looking at transformation that is comprehensive and yet manageable without all the buzzword bingo terminology</li> <li>11 critical lessons taken from the author’s broad experience on a broad range of topics that you can leverage in your situation</li> <li>To get some thought provoking insight from 10 key questions for each lesson that you can use to apply the lessons to your organization</li> <li>A comprehensive framework for leading transformation that will challenge your thinking and provide a path forward to taking immediate action</li> </ul>
With rare insight and candor, the authors provide thoughtful advice backed by examples from their comprehensive experience. If you don’t like transformation, you are going to hate irrelevance. This book is your best bet for getting the insight you need to transform your organization before it becomes irrelevant.

Executing Your Business Transformation: How to Engage Sweeping Change Without Killing Yourself or Your Business

Business & Money

Johnson, Robert J.

Morgan, Mark I.

Cole, Andrew B.

Management & Leadership

Jossey-Bass Inc Pub

Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing

Most observers agree that marriage in America has been changing. Some think it is in decline, that the growth of individualism has made it increasingly difficult to achieve satisfying and stable relationships. Others believe that changes, such as increasing gender equality, have made marriage a better arrangement for men as well as women.  Based on two studies of marital quality in America twenty years apart, this book takes a middle view, showing that while the divorce rate has leveled off, spouses are spending less time together—people may be “bowling alone” these days, but married couples are also eating alone. Indeed, the declining social capital of married couples—including the fact that couples have fewer shared friends—combined with the general erosion of community ties in American society has had pervasive, negative effects on marital quality.  At the same time, family income has increased, decision-making equality between husbands and wives is greater, marital conflict and violence have declined, and the norm of lifelong marriage enjoys greater support than ever.  The authors conclude that marriage is an adaptable institution, and in accommodating the vast changes that have occurred in society over the recent past, it has become a less cohesive, yet less confining arrangement.

Self-Help

Booth, Alan

Amato, Paul R.

Rogers, Stacy J.

Relationships

Harvard University Press

Book by Johnson, David R., Booth, John A., Harris, Richard C.

The Politics of San Antonio: Community, Progress, and Power

Booth, John A.

Harris, Richard C.

Politics & Government

Univ of Nebraska Pr

Describes the Coastal Louisiana Risk Assessment (CLARA) model developed by RAND to estimate flood depths and damage that occurs as a result of major storms in Louisiana¹s coastal region. CLARA made it possible to evaluate potential projects for inclusion in the Louisiana¹s 2012 Coastal Master Plan on the basis of how well they reduce flood damage over the next fifty years. Also describes damage reduction provided by the final Master Plan.

Coastal Louisiana Risk Assessment Model: Technical Description and 2012 Coastal Master Plan Analysis Results (Technical Report)

History

Fischbach, Jordan R.

Ortiz, David S.

Ostwald, Jordan

Bryant, Benjamin P.

Hoover, Matthew

Americas

RAND Corporation

Participatory Evaluation Strategy for Special Education and Rehabilitation (MONOGRAPHS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION ON MENTAL RETARDATION)

Education & Teaching

Braddock, David L.

Lewis, Darrell R.

Schools & Teaching

Amer Assn on Intellectual & Devel

Exploring the growing division among academic scientists over a profit motive in research.
The commercialization of research is one of the most significant contemporary features of US higher education, yet we know surprisingly little about how scientists perceive and experience commercial rewards. A Fractured Profession is the first book to systematically examine the implications of commercialization for both universities and faculty members from the perspective of academic scientists. Drawing on richly detailed interviews with sixty-one scientists at four universities across the United States, sociologist David R. Johnson explores how an ideology of commercialism produces intraprofessional conflict in academia.
The words of scientists themselves reveal competing constructions of status, conflicting norms, and divergent career paths and professional identities. Commercialist scientists embrace a professional ideology that emphasizes the creation of technologies that control societal uncertainties and advancing knowledge toward particular―and financial―ends. Traditionalist scientists, on the other hand, often find themselves embattled and threatened by university and federal emphasis on commercialization. They are less concerned about issues such as conflicts of interest and corruption than they are about unequal rewards, unequal conditions of work, and conflicts of commitment to university roles and basic science.
Arguing that the division between commercialists and traditionalists represents a new form of inequality in the academic profession, this book offers an incisive look into the changing conditions of work in an era of academic capitalism. Focusing on how the profit motive is reshaping higher education and redefining what faculty are supposed to do, this book will appeal to scientists and academics, higher education scholars, university administrators and policy makers, and students considering a career in science.

A Fractured Profession: Commercialism and Conflict in Academic Science (Critical University Studies)

Science for Kids

Johns Hopkins University Press

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Books by Johnson, David R.