The cultural meanings of science and religion: moral and epistemic authority in the United States

Abstract Scholars often associate science and religion with different spheres of authority, linking science to factual knowledge and religion to moral guidance. Yet individuals often blur these boundaries, with some using science as a basis for moral judgment and others turning to religion to understand empirical facts. Using new survey measures and nationally representative data (n = 1516), our latent class analysis identifies five distinctive perspectives on the cultural authority of science and religion. About half of the respondents see either science or religion as a source of both knowledge and values. The rest fall into one of three groups that assign different combinations of moral and intellectual meaning to science and religion. These orientations are strongly associated with views on public policies related to each domain, even after accounting for ideology, religious beliefs, and socio-demographic characteristics. By mapping the cultural meanings that anchor perceptions of science and religion, this article contributes to research on institutional trust, symbolic boundaries, and pluralism in public life.