The Belief in God and Immortality. By James H. Leuba. Sherman, French & Co., 1916. Pp.  340.

In the second part of this book, pp. 173-288, Professor Leuba presents the statistical results of an inquiry into the prevalence of belief in a personal God and in immortality, among various groups of persons. These consisted of college students, men of science and historians, the members of the latter two groups being also divided according to professional distinction. Consistent differences are found between these groups, in the prevalence of the beliefs studied. In a group of American college students, believers in a personal God were found in 56 per cent, of men and 82 per cent, of women. 32 per cent, of men and 17 per cent, of women assert that the non-existence of a personal God would make no difference to their lives. In a more intensive study of a single college, the percentage of believers in immortality decreased as the students were more advanced in college grade except for the junior class, which showed the smallest percentage. This junior class was supposed to be of “exceptional independence and intellectual superiority.”

In different departments of knowledge, greater and lesser men compared as follows in their percentage of believers in a personal God:

A similar situation was found in the percentage of believers in immortality, as follows:

Relatively to the belief in a personal God, the psychologists show the least disposition to believe in personal immortality. The percentage of believers among physicists and biologists compares as follows: