Are religious people really less intelligent?

Question

I am a Christian and have been informed that recent studies have shown that there is a negative correlation between how religious a person is and there level of intelligence (for my fellow theists this means the more religious you are the stupider you are). In the royal society 3% of over a thousand are religious in Americas equivalent there is 9% compared to the 40% in the general population. Could my lack of understanding of the world around me be the reason for my faith in the supernatural?

Answer 1

I predict that you are an atheist merely posing as one of the faithful.

Answer 2

3% of the Royal Society being religious? And somebody is using that as a measuring stick to determine the intelligence levels of religious people and non-religious people? How absurd.

There is a strong correlation in the scientific community of non-faith. The nature of the subject being studied forces one to question the existence of a supernatural being. But, as a group.....I don't think scientists are any more intelligent than philosophers or sociologists, and I'm pretty sure that they have much higher rates of religioun.

FWIW, I am a member of the Mensa society, and I know that there are a great many believers there, of all faiths.....and I also know many scientists who are also believers.

If you are a Christian, and you believe, keep believing. Maybe you are the one with the better understanding of the world around you.

Answer 3

First of all, intelligence is a difficult thing to measure and there is actually very little agreement on what the term means. Membership in the Royal Society is not a good measure of intelligence.

Second, you are talking statistically, which does not provide any information about a particular persons intelligence and religiousity, just the probability of each together (in other words the fact that 3% of the Royal Society is religious means that there are some very religious member of the royal society)

Third, be careful about cause and effect. It may be that education (not intelligence) is the more correlateable factor, and it may be that acceptance of modern style education is unlikely by people who are religious (could be that when they are learned, they think they are wise, and they lose the humility required of the religious)

Lastly, this phenomena of relgiousity and education/erudition being unlinked is a recent thing. Through most of history the most successful thinkers and the educaters and the statesmen were religious people. Abraham Lincoln, Mendel, Newton, etc

So, in summary, although religious people may be at reduced concentrations in Royal Societies and the like in our day, there is no evidence that religious people are less intelligent or that the probability actually correlates to the religiousity instead of two some other factor like income.

Answer 4

wow - theres a lot in that question - firstly, being religious and most def being Christian does not mean you have faith in the supernatural. Many Christians would say that was totally against their religion. However, you may mean supernatural as in the Holy Trinity as opposed to ghosts and ghouls.

The figures that the studies show are not really true figures because in the parts of society where there is traditionally less intelligence, religious fervour is often greater. This is a matter of tradition often and other times it is used as a means to control an uneducated populace. However, there are a great many highly intelligent people who are of all faiths. It is often a source of wonder to me that these people can somehow ratify what has to come down to blind faith with their otherwise enquiring minds.

So, to answer you, no religious people are not less intelligent but religion has an easier time with the less intelligent.

Answer 5

Religion does not make you stupid.
It's a matter of what you spend your brainpower on.
The Bible is almost infinite in terms of depth. You can spend a
lifetime studying it, and still not grasp it's entirety.
All religions are very time consuming. The more devout you are,
the less time and brain capacity you have left to pursue other
forms of knowledge.

One other possible reason for the lower
Intelligence score is:
using God as an explanation for everything requires no brain power.
Your brain may become lazy and lose the drive to learn.

Be careful, don't forget about Sloth from the "Seven Deadly Sins". God detests laziness.

Answer 6

If somebody accepts the authority of God and offers their respects to Him, they are most intelligent. Intelligence means to inquire about the Absolute Truth, not spend all life eating, sleeping, mating and defending like animals. Dog cannot understand God. Human being can. Human life is meant for that.
If somebody inquires about Absolute Truth and through loving devotion to Supreme Lord realizes their spiritual nature, they become the most intelligent of all. In today's world intelligence is sometimes considered being a big scientist. But if some big scientist identifies with his body, not knowing anything about his spiritual nature and relationship with God, then, Vedas say, he is no better than cow or donkey.
However, if somebody takes religion to be certain external designation and do not develop their love for the Lord, they are also on the same bodily platform, so they are as unintelligent as most of the people.

Answer 7

To say something like that would be what I would call VERY prejudice. But anyway I really don't think that is the case. I go to a Christian school and there are and there are alot of exceptional people there, mostly Christian. So at least all of the religious people I know are rather intelligent.

Answer 8

The problem is people don't really understand what statistics mean. Forget sampling errors, how many times the study was repeated, and all of that. Let's just assume the numbers you state are valid. By the way I've heard of studies that link education levels to religiosity so let's say that's what we're talking about.

All it means is that among the population of the highly educated, a smaller percentage are religious than in the population of the less highly educated. Does that mean that all religious people are stupid? Not at all. Does it mean that all non-religious people are educated? Not even close. As far as individuals within the population studied go, it means absolutely nothing. Statistics are aggregates, and don't say anything about individuals. What does it mean? Simply what the numbers say and nothing more.

Answer 9

It may be true that the religious are less intelligent - how can a person that really thinks buy the obvious silliness of religion? - but there are at least two other reasons for such beliefs. One is immaturity. God is an extension of or improvement on Daddy; they can't leave paternal security. Father knows best, right?

The other is egoism. Some people just have to impose themselves on the universe. MY God, MY salvation, I'VE studied the Bible for ten years, God prefers ME, MY friends, MY country. I was made in His image...etc. That's why the one-God religions are so popular. That's why people kill for their God.

Answer 10

No
Obviously if people are stupid enough to believe everything in the old testament they must be pretty stupid, so if religious means believing unbelievable twaddle just because someone padded out the life and words of Jesus Christ with some old Jewish text hundreds of years ago then perhaps the studies are right.
Had they asked if people believed that to love thy neighbour, to turn the other cheek that all men are equal, etc are the correct way to live their lives, basically christian fundamentalism, they would have got a very different result.

Answer 11

As an atheist with a 130 IQ, I can back that statement. Truthfully, I believe that the ability to have faith in something is genetic, after all, I didn't have a choice in being an atheist, I just am. I don't pity you, I just assume that you don't have a firm grasp on logic, and are instead forced to believe something that seems plausible to you, but not to me. It isn't your fault.


From the link below on someone else's post-

"Leading Scientists Still Reject God"

A recent survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences showed that 72% are outright atheists, 21% are agnostic and only 7% admit to belief in a personal God.

In multiple studies, there is a negative correlation between theism and morality. By Franzblau's 1934 study, there's a negative correlation between religiousity and honesty. Ross 1950 shows atheists and agnostics are more likely to express their willingness to help the poor than the deeply religious. 1969 Hirschi and Stark found no correlation in lawbreaking by churchgoing children and non-churchgoing children.

This same Skeptic published the results of another study that compared professions and likelihood of believing in God. The general public was just over 90% likely to believe in God. Scientists in general were just under 40% likely. Mathematicians were just over 40% likely, biologists just under 30%, and physicists were barely over 20% likely to believe in God.