page_title: Protestant culture
section_title: Science
hierarchical_section_title: Protestant culture / Science
caption_attribution_description: English: Columbia University's Butler Library at nighttime
context_page_description: Although the Reformation was a religious movement, it also had a strong impact on all other aspects of life: marriage and family, education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy, and the arts.
context_section_description: Protestantism had an important influence on science. According to the Merton Thesis, there was a positive correlation between the rise of Puritanism and Protestant Pietism on the one hand and early experimental science on the other. 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 techniques 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. In his theory, Robert K. 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. Merton 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. Protestant values encouraged scientific research by allowing science to study God's influence on the world and thus providing a religious justification for scientific research.
  According to Harriet Zuckerman's review of American Nobel prize laureates from 1901 to 1972, 72% were of Protestant background. According to Zuckerman, Protestants featured among the American laureates in a slightly greater proportion (72%) than their prevalence within the general population (about 2/3). Overall, Protestants have won a total of 84.2% of all the American Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, 60% in Medicine and 58.6% in Physics between 1901 and 1972.
  According to 100 Years of Nobel Prize (2005), a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000, 65.4% of Nobel Prize Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference (423 prizes).  While 32% have identified Protestant in its various forms (208 prize). although Protestant comprise 11.6% to 13% of the world's population.
caption: Columbia University was established by the Church of England.
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