ABSTRACT
Consider for a moment the vast range of social questions that cannot be answered without some attention to the intersections between science and belief. Take, for example, science communication, especially the branch of it interested in influencing so-called ‘hard to reach’ sections of society. If you are interested in this as an activity, you will have to grapple with the fact that the people you want to talk to identify with myriad religious and nonreligious traditions and communities. This may influence whether and how your interlocutors engage with medical treatments, new technologies, and the natural world – encompassing everything from mental health treatments and organ donation to responses to climate change and vaccination programmes (something that became very apparent, on a global scale, with the COVID pandemic in 2020).
