Religious people go to Church... Atheists go to Universities?

Answer 1

Actually, several studies have shown a negative correlation between intelligence/education level and religiosity/faith.
This means that the smarter you are, the less likely you are to believe in god.

In 1986, the magazine Sceptic summarized studies on religiosity and intelligence:

All but four of the forty-three polls listed support the conclusion that native intelligence varies inversely with degree of religious faith; i.e., that, other factors being equal, the more intelligent a person is, the less religious he/she is.
Conclusions
In this essay:
sixteen studies of the correlation between individual measures of student intelligence and religiosity, all but three of which reported an inverse correlation.
five studies reporting that student bodies with high average IQ and/or SAT scores are far less religious than lower-scoring student bodies;
three studies reporting that geniuses (IQ 3+ standard deviations above average) are much less religious than the general public, and one dubious study;
seven studies reporting that highly successful persons are much less religious in belief than are others; and
eight old and four new Gallup polls revealing that college alumni (average IQ about one standard deviation above average) are much less religious in belief than are grade-school pollees.
Some examples from this overview:

One study of a group with IQs over 140 found that of men, 10 percent held strong religious belief, of women 18 percent (Terman, 1959). Sixty-two percent of men and 57 percent of women claimed "little religious inclination" while 28 percent of the men and 23 percent of the women claimed it was "not at all important."

A study of Mensa members found that they had many fewer religious beliefs than the typical American college alumnus or adult (Southern and Plant, 1968). It is not clear whether Mensa members are representative of high-IQ people in this regard.

Students attending higher-ranked schools have fewer religious beliefs than those attending lower-ranked schools (Caplovitz and Sherrow, 1977). (It should be noted, however, that the ranking of schools is a highly debated issue, and most highly-ranked schools in this survey came from states that were generally less religious.)

Five of these studies concerned how liberal or conservative a person's religious views were, as opposed to whether a person was or was not religious in the first place. For example, among eminent scientists, Lehman and Witty (1931) found that Unitarians were most overrepresented with 81 times the proportion of Unitarians in the U.S. population. Quakers were second with 7 times the corresponding proportion.

Recent studies
In Explorations: An undergraduate research journal, Regan Clarke reports religious belief and behavior were negatively correlated with SAT scores in the USA. In 2000, noted skeptic Michael Shermer found a negative correlation between education and religosity in the United States, though Rice University indicates this may not apply to the social sciences.

Several studies on Americans focus on the beliefs of high-IQ individuals. In one study, 90% of the general population surveyed professed a distinct belief in a personal god and afterlife, while only 40% of the scientists with a BS surveyed did so, and only 10% of those considered "eminent.". Another study found that mathematicians were just over 40%, biologists just under 30%, and physicists were barely over 20% likely to believe in God.

A 1998 survey by Larson and Witham of the 517 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences showed that 72.2% of the members expressed "personal disbelief" in a personal God while 20.8% expressed "doubt or agnosticism" and only 7.0% expressed "personal belief". This was a follow-up to their own earlier 1996 study which itself was a follow-up to a 1916 study by James Leuba.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed opinions by nation with the question "How important is religion in your life—very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important?" The report finds that Americans are much more religious than people living in other wealthy nations. In the U.S., 59% of people reported religion was "very important", as compared to 30% in Canada. In this way, the views of Americans are more simliar to people in developing countries than those in developed countries. The study found a correlation between the percentage of people reporting that religion was "very important" and the national per-capita GDP. It can be further stated that the nations who scored as most religious tended to have low science scores according to TIMSS. Also an inverse correlation at Nationmaster can be found between mathematical literacy and church attendance. (Although labor regulation and police per capita were far stronger inverse correlations) No significant inverse correlation showed up for scientific literacy or reading literacy however.


Christian Response
It has been argued by some Christians that the Bible does not necessarily dispute these findings, as the beginning of the first letter to Corinthians reads:

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." (1 Corinthians 1 v 26-27, New International Version)

Answer 2

Religious people go to Church... Atheists go to Universities?

I am a True Christian.

I rarely go to a Church.
I graduated from two Universities with four Degrees.

Answer 3

Yes...but you forgort to mention it happens the other way around too. Religious people also go to the universities...sorry if you didn't knew that.
By the way, the percentage of religious people in universities is bigger than that of atheists...

Think better before you write something...(It seems you are not in university yet)

Answer 4

But who's to say a certian way makes one better than the other...

Some people get up every Sunday morning to go to church and call themselves religious. Some people go to church 2 days a wk. Some people go to church between 4 and 7 days a wk.
Some people go to church once a year on Easter. Some people go to church twice a year, on Easter and Christmas. Yet those who do these things (most people assume) they believe in God!
Some people (never) go to any church (at all, for anything).
However, (many of us) have met people not knowing what thier belief's are and not even being concerned about that' we are automatically treated with respect.
I for one went to church many days of the wk in my younger years, and yet, I met good and bad both inside and outside the church that's why I feel I can say......... It does'nt matter what someone's drive is to make them do the things they do, or go to the places they go.

ONE THINGS FOR SURE !

It does'nt matter whether you go to a church.
It does'nt matter whether you go to a university.
What matters is the way a person feels inside of themselves
that's what really makes us who we are, that's what really shows, and thats really counts.
that's what everyone's going to feel on the outside!!!!

Answer 5

I'm a Christian and I not only attended a CUNY university and received my MA there, I now teach in one. At least two of the pastors in my church have university doctorates. And what about the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Answer 6

Im a Christian that goes to church and graduated from Rutgers Univerisity Camden in 2002. So looks like a lot of Christians do both and Atheists only do one if they're lucky.

Answer 7

Many religious people aren't as open to scientific theories because some go directly against their teachings. Atheists don't have the answers in a book in front of them, so they must search for them- in universities.

Answer 8

Yeah, you're right.

I remember seeing 1000's of atheists signing up at BYU (UT), Oral Roberts University (OK), Norte Dame (IN), College of William and Mary (VA), Marymount College (NY), Colorado Christian University, St. Joseph College (CT), Wesley (DE). St. Xavier (IL) and several hundred more.

That's OK, I doubt that the millions of religious university & college students don't mind.

Answer 9

Religious people go to University's to, whats up with this question??

Answer 10

The greater knowledgeable a individual will become, the greater probably they are to reject any faith that demands thought in the supernatural. additionally, for many pupils it is the 1st time they have been removed from the kinfolk and its expectancies. they might have been atheists secretly for the time of extreme college, yet got here out of the closet whilst they have been given to college. besides the fact that, maximum universities (i might say basically about all of them) have chaplains. they often take care of social activities for college little ones. whilst i became into in college in the early Nineteen Seventies, between the prominent hangouts became right into a coffee living house run by making use of the Episcopal chaplaincy.

Answer 11

More like christians go to church(sometimes)... atheist do whatever, usually sleep in after getting "wasted" the day before.