Protestantism

===Science===
{{See also|Merton thesis}}
[[File:Butler Library - 1000px - AC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Columbia University]], an [[Ivy League]] university in [[New York City]], was initially established by the [[Church of England]].]]
Protestantism has had an important influence on science. According to the [[Merton Thesis]], there was a positive [[correlation]] between the rise of English [[Puritanism]] and German [[Pietism]] on the one hand and early [[experimental science]] on the other.<ref name=sztompka2003>{{cite book|last=Sztompka|first=P.|author-link=Piotr Sztompka|chapter=Chapter 1. Robert K. Merton|title=[Extract from] the Blackwell ... Social Theorists|pages=12–33|publisher= Wiley|date=2003|doi=10.1002/9780470999912.ch2|isbn=978-0470999912|chapter-url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405105958_chunk_g97814051059584|via=blackwellreference.com}}</ref> The Merton Thesis has two separate parts: Firstly, it presents a theory that science changes due to an accumulation of observations and improvement in experimental technique and [[methodology]]; secondly, it puts forward the argument that the popularity of science in 17th-century England and the religious [[demography]] of the [[Royal Society]] (English scientists of that time were predominantly Puritans or other Protestants) can be explained by a [[correlation]] between Protestantism and the scientific values.<ref name=gregory1998>{{cite web|last=Gregory |first=Andrew|year=1998|title=Lecture&nbsp;14|type=course handout|series=215 – The Scientific Revolution|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gregory/215/handouts/h14_srel.doc|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513160014/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gregory/215/handouts/h14_srel.doc|archive-date=2006-05-13}}</ref> Merton focused on English Puritanism and German Pietism as having been responsible for the development of the [[scientific revolution]] of the 17th and 18th centuries. He explained that the connection between [[religious affiliation]] and interest in science was the result of a significant synergy between the [[ascetic]] Protestant values and those of modern science.<ref name=becker1992>{{cite journal|last=Becker|first=George|date=December 1992|title=The Merton thesis: Oetinger and German Pietism, a significant negative case|journal=[[Sociological Forum]]|volume=7|issue=4|pages=642–660|doi=10.1007/bf01112319|s2cid=56239703}}</ref> Protestant values encouraged scientific research by allowing science to identify God's influence on the world—his creation—and thus providing a religious justification for scientific research.<ref name=sztompka2003/>

According to ''Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States'' by [[Harriet Zuckerman]], a review of American [[Nobel Prize]]s awarded between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American [[Nobel Prizes|Nobel Prize]] laureates identified a Protestant background.<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh">[[Harriet Zuckerman]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HAHCzJfmD5IC Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523003039/https://books.google.com/books?id=HAHCzJfmD5IC |date=23 May 2020 }}'' New York, The Free Press, 1977, p. 68: Protestants turn up among the American-reared laureates in slightly greater proportion to their numbers in the general population. Thus 72 percent of the seventy-one laureates but about two-thirds of the American population were reared in one or another Protestant denomination-)</ref> Overall, 84% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans in [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]],<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> 60% in [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]],<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> and 59% in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]]<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> between 1901 and 1972 were won by Protestants.

According to ''100 Years of Nobel Prize (2005)'', a review of Nobel Prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000, 65% of [[Nobel Prizes|Nobel Prize]] Laureates, [[List of Christian Nobel laureates|have identified Christianity]] in its various forms as their religious preference (423 prizes).<ref name="Nobel prize">Baruch A. Shalev, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3jrbmL-DgZQC 100 Years of Nobel Prizes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523003140/https://books.google.com/books?id=3jrbmL-DgZQC |date=23 May 2020 }}'' (2003), Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, p. 57: between 1901 and 2000 reveals that 654 Laureates belong to 28 different religion Most 65% have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.
While separating Catholics from Protestants among Christians proved difficult in some cases, available information suggests that more Protestants were involved in the scientific categories and more Catholics were involved in the Literature and Peace categories.

Atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers constitute 11% of total Nobel Prize winners; but in the category of Literature, these preferences rise sharply to about 35%. A striking fact involving religion is the high number of Laureates of the Jewish faith—over 20% of total Nobel Prizes (138); including: 17% in Chemistry, 26% in Medicine and Physics, 40% in Economics and 11% in Peace and Literature each. The numbers are especially startling in light of the fact that only some 14 million people (0.02% of the world's population) are Jewish. By contrast, only 5 Nobel Laureates have been of the Muslim faith—1% of total number of Nobel prizes awarded—from a population base of about 1.2 billion (20% of the world's population)</ref> While 32% have identified with Protestantism in its various forms (208 prizes),<ref name="Nobel prize"/> although Protestants are 12% to 13% of the world's population.