yoshie, your own data suggests that your initial statement:
> is (the United States, where only scientists, Jewish Americans, and
> Asian Americans are largely irreligious, being among few exceptions).
is incorrect. since way less than 50-37=13% of white americans are scientists or irreligious jews (i would think).
also, from above: if i was to remove the chinese immigrants (since, wildly theorizing, they may be irreligious due to lack of organized religion in their country of origin), then i get about 36% of asian americans considering themselves religious, bringing it on par with white americans. i admit this is a bit of a stretch. i am quite puzzled by the data, since my hunch is that asian indians from india/pakistan/sri-lanka/bangladesh (i would guess the the 1.9 million above + a bit more) are predominantly religious.
>> could you elaborate on why you think its probable that indian
>> scientists are less religious than american (lets say white, black)
>> scientists?
>
> Since Asian-Americans are less religious than other races, I thought it
> probable that Asian-American scientists are also less religious than
> those of other races. But that's a hypothesis only, highly probable
> though it seems to me. If anyone has evidence that shows that, in
> contrast to Asian-Americans in general, Asian-American scientists are as
> religious as or more religious than scientists of other races, I'll be
> all ears.
i do not have any sort of hard evidence. but neither have i seen evidence to contradict my experience that indians (scientists or otherwise) -- indian americans -- are as religious and perhaps more so, than white americans.
--ravi