The Ethics of Doing Scholarship with a Religious Lens

The latest issue of Earth magazine ran an article about how creation scientists from fundamentalist Christian universities are going to scientific conferences and giving presentations that seem perfectly mainstream, but sneak in some creationist conclusions. They then return home to their universities and brag that their conclusions were accepted by audiences full of mainstream geologists.

This reminds me of a question Richard Bushman once asked in a class at CGU. He wondered aloud whether it's legitimate for a scholar to present a religiously-inspired argument in the sciences or humanities without disclosing that the idea comes from a religious perspective. For example, LDS scholars with religious motives have made some interesting and relatively unobjectionable contributions on topics such as ancient Jewish warfare and the history of the idea of "pre-existence". Do such studies need to be prefaced by a confession of the author's Mormon theological commitments? The problem with disclosing a religious motive is that it immediately renders one's work suspect. The audience may reject a perfectly valid argument just because they reject the religious views of the presenter.

Personally, I don't think scholars need to disclose their beliefs every time their religious views affect their choices of subject matter. But on the other hand, I obviously don't support what the creationists are doing. So the question is, where do we draw the line?

Probably disclosure is always the best route. However, I think non-disclosure can be acceptable provided the following three conditions are met:

1) Most subject matter experts who reject your religious perspective would agree with your arguments even if they knew of your religious motives.
2) You don't use tricky or misleading language that will cause people to draw false conclusions about your religious perspective.
3) You don't use people's endorsements of your conclusions to lend credence to your faith.

I should note that this ethical problem isn't exclusive to religious people. Ideological atheists presenting papers on religion need to ask the same questions, and consider disclosure just as seriously. Remember: disclosure isn't an admission that you're wrong. It's just an admission that we're human beings, and our lenses color the way we see the world.