Are religiosity and intelligence inversely related?

Question

Is it that highly intelligent people are more likely to question things and be less dogmatic, and therefore are less likely to believe in literal translations of texts such as the Bible? Is it because logical and analytical thinking leads (with an open mind free from religious brain-washing/emotional attachment) to the rejection of the notion of omnipotent beings and heaven and hell? Whilst many religious people are undoubtedly intelligent, I believe that perhaps strong emotion/attachment can override or affect certain cognitive functions and so therefore the emotional significance of religion becomes the dominant force, not reason. For example when people are really angry or completely in love, they are more prone to loss of reasoning ability. Experience working within mental health has exposed me to the link between extreme religiosity and psychosis, which I think is an interesting one. Does anyone know of any research into this?

Answer 1

I am not aware of any research in this area but just wanted to say I completely agree with the hypothesis and I have been telling my wife this for years.

Answer 2

To answer the specific question that you are asking - the relationship between intelligence and religiosity is an inverse one but it is much weaker than you might expect. Numerous secular psychologists have studied this phenomenon and all the research suggests that the connection is statistically quite weak. If I were to speculate for this I would tend to agree with your statements that emotions and desires are powerful psychological influences that can impair logical analysis on this topic.

As a side note - according to research done by the world-famous scientist Dr. Thomas Bouchard, religiosity is highly genetic. If your parents are deeply religious than there is a strong chance you will be religious, even if you were raised in another country instead of here with your parents. However, the specific religion a person belongs to - including no religion at all - is almost entirely environmental and not genetic.

Answer 3

I completely agree. If you want a good read on psychosis and religiosity, read J. Allan Hobson's "The Dream Drugstore". The book is on the parallels of brain chemistry during sleep, under the influence of drugs and under the affect of psychosis. He mentions temporal lobe epilepsy in people considered extremely religious and offers this as a reasonable explaination of why some people really believe they have seen extraordinary things. He also mentions how experiments with ketomine have replicated Near Death Experiences in test subjects.

I think you'll find that much research shows what you've stated to be correct, but the fact that the issue is so touchy, I don't think you'll find a study devoted explicitly to it.

Answer 4

i dont know of any research no, but i have read somewhere there is a link between epilepsy and religiosity, something to do with the area of the brain thats comes into play with both conditions.

and as for love, i think romantic love should be classed as a sectionable mental disorder lol. there again, there's such a thing as erotomania i believe, and isnt there a link between dopamine, lust/drive and schizophrenia? or is that still just a theory?

i see your point about intelligence versus religiosity though, and av met intelligent people who would be even more intelligent if they questionned their own dogmatic religious/spiritual beliefs.

great question, made me think, and gave me insight into a recent situation. thank you ;o)

Answer 5

This is a really interesting subject, I'm curious to see the responses. I was going to ask something similar to this myself, I'm glad you went ahead and did it for me. Personally, I there is a correlation but I don't know how significant it is. I would imagine there are groups of people in the world who are not religious BECAUSE they're not educated about it, which is the opposite of this theory, but they're obviously in the minority. Overall though, it definitely seems that there is some relevance to it just based on my perception, but I don't know of any evidence to back it up. I wish someone would do a study on this that would get some decent public exposure, but I bet that will never happen.

Answer 6

I think it's a little deeper than merely, "Morons are more likely to believe in God than intelligent people..." no matter how conclusive the statistics are. And an IQ test doesn't really indicate a persons true intelligence to me. A better test in this case would be to somehow determine how likely a person is to let emotion affect their judgment because religiosity is all to do with emotion, namely fear.

Answer 7

They are probably too scared to delve into what you say here. I tend to agree with you. Certain emotions do seem more powerful than intelligent thought. There is a vindication, or sanctity, to backing up emotions.
Does the word "religiosity" describe the fanatical zealotry of islam?

Answer 8

You can't generalize.
The present pope is considered a highly intelligent individual, for example.
I think that not even the most fervent believer is totally without doubt,
and I also believe that it's silencing the doubt-provoking influx from within and without that leads a lot of the "faithful" to act in the irrational and aggressive manner they do.

Answer 9

Research like that would leave the researcher open to a lot of criticism from the right wing, so it might be unlikely. What you say is true, however. You see evidence of it in people who deny the theories of evolution. It's easy to see that they are just afraid to let go of their convictions, not that they have any real logical objection to the theories.

Answer 10

any extreme will lead to extreme. To much sugar in the cap of tea is not as good as some rational amount. i think it can be related to everything. At another side person can try to hide from reality in alcohol, drugs or any other addicitive. I didn't want to put religion in that line but it seems that sometimes it s the similar addictive