Some 40 per cent of the respondents to Larson's questionnaire express belief in a Supreme Being, while nearly 45 per cent do not believe. Belief in human life after death declined from 35.2 per cent in the 1916 study to 7.9 per cent in Larson's study. I was mildly surprised to learn that 40 per cent of American scientists believe in a Supreme Being and that this figure has not significantly declined over the past 80 years. However, the significant decline in belief in a personal God does indicate a weakening of religious beliefs among scientists. The purpose of science is to investigate how the natural world works.
Science can consider only natural mechanisms as explanations for the natural world.
Science has no competence to investigate supernatural phenomena and has nothing to say about the supernatural. Because science has nothing to say about the supernatural world does not mean that it denies the supernatural world. Science is by no means unique in having nothing to say about the supernatural world. Of course, scientists are under more pressure than most groups to clarify their thoughts on the supernatural. After all, supernatural explanations are seriously proposed for several large phenomena for which scientists are actively pursuing natural explanations, e.g. the origin of life, the origin of human consciousness, etc.