n 1916 the eminent researcher James Leuba studied the religious beliefs of American scientists. One thousand randomly selected scientists listed in American Men of Science were queried. Leuba predicted that disbelief in God would increase. In 1996 the survey was duplicated as exactly as possible, again using 1,000 scientists listed in American Men and Women of Science. Over that 80-year period there was hardly any change as far as the scientists' beliefs in God are concerned. Proportion of belief in God in various disciplines of science varied, and there was a noted decrease in desire for immortality. God was defined as the kind of God that communicates and answers prayers. Response to the questionnaires was in the 60-70 percent range. Details of the questions about God and responses are given below.

Choices	Percent Response
	1916	1996
a. I believe in a God in intellectual and effective communication with humankind, i.e., a God to whom one may pray in expectation of receiving an answer. By "answer," I mean more than the subjective, psychological effect of prayer.	41.8	39.3
b. I do not believe in God as defined above.	41.5	45.3
c. I have no definite belief regarding this question.	16.7	14.5

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*E. J. Larson and L. Witham, "Scientists are Still Keeping the Faith," Nature (1997) 386, 435, 436.