effects of education on religion?

Question

serious observation - most answers i have read here pertaining to why atheists who were once believers don't believe anymore, talk about education. we know that religion was originally a way to explain the unexplainable in the world. now that the average person is extremely more educated then back in biblical times, is this why religion is having such a hard time keeping followers and finding new ones? science seems to be taking the lead; the more educated the poplulation, the less people turn to religion. true, false or a bit of both? please provide answers, not biblical quotes that can easily be misinterpreted. thanks

motherof - if Knowledge is a good thing, achieved by learning. Wisdom is what God gives us and is acquired by Him.
then why would people be turning away from the church with this wisdom?

thanks elliot

Answer 1

If God wanted us to be educated he wouldn't have punished Adam + Eve for eating from the tree of 'knowledge'.

Education leads to better understand. Understanding that shows us how limited religion is. Therefore education is bad for religion, but good for mankind.

Answer 2

I would definitely say so. If you asked how the room was lit and someone showed you the light bulb and explained how it worked and someone else says 'No, God did it...and BTW, if you don't believe me you'll be eternally tortured', most would probably choose the more educated response. Of course, we haven't learned everything there is. Enough 'but's' have sufficiently been answered, not according to the whim of a complex, invisible being, that many have reasonable doubt, or have all-together abandoned their belief.
But, tradition and the psychological need to believe there is 'more' makes it change, not completely disappear. There's a book called 'Thr God Gene' that says (in a nutshell) that human's are 'hard-wired' to believe. Something about cells in the brain.

Answer 3

I don't believe that science is the evil villain pitted against religion.
I think religion should do what it does best. It does a bad job explaining the world so it should stay far from that.
Science does never once touch upon the meaning of life, what it is to be 'good' or why it's important... that's religion's task.
Many people still find it very adequate for that.
You just shouldn't read religion to be the Total Knowledge Of Everything, because you put yourself in an undefendable position and make yourself look like silly.

Answer 4

I don't think that education logically, necessarily precludes religion or spirituality, or makes either redundant. There are plenty of intelligent people with spiritual beliefs.

What I DO believe is that a healthy, open mind tends to behave differently from a less intelligent, narrower mind.

I consider my self "educated," and my spiritual beliefs have altered over time; not that I've become LESS spiritual, but such that I "internalized" a lot of it and find that showy, outward displays have no significance for me. I treat people with love and respect, I have a sense of sympathy, forgiveness and charity. And I don't have some overwhelming need or motivation to aggressively pursue others to judge them or correct them or "show them the way."

I have also met my fair share of folks who seemed "less-educated," but the thing that bothered me about them was that they seemed to believe that because of their beliefs, because of how they cherry-picked scripture to justify their actions, that they had total license to antagonize and insult others "in the name of the Lord."

I think that a more mature, well-balanced, "educated" person respects the personal space of other human beings and doesn't try to force their philosophy upon them.

Common courtesy and decency play a part in religious "witnessing" as much as in any other aspect of life.

Answer 5

Indeed there is a negative correlation between education and religious belief. Here you go http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/C21D5DBCC4F5C89DCA2570EC00787E6E?opendocument
The bottom table's the one you want. There's also another a little further up that says that 7% of primary school students provided 'no religion' on the census, compared to 16.9% of secondary school students.
These stats are about 13 years old though.

Answer 6

To me alot of people are into religon and got away from seeking God and the truth of what God is about they go to church for different reasons now days it isn't about God anymore the word does say this they honor me with there lips but their heart is for from me. It is more about the churches than about God and getting closer this is apart of the prophesys of the end time so if people don't wake up they are not going to heaven according to Gods word.

Answer 7

517 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences were surveyed in 1998, and 72% of them were atheists. This up from 52% in a similar 1914 survey.

Answer 8

My best example:

Western Europe.
Norway, Sweden, Netherlands.

All have poured bucketloads of money into education. All are prosperous, liberal secular societies with low crime rates.

Contrast with the US?

Answer 9

Most educated societies move away from religion/superstition.

Answer 10

Think on this nearly, if not every, concept in this world had some origin in the bible. The bible was the original teaching text. The whole of societies morals comes from the bible. I can go on and on but all true thought starts from one place - give some thought and see if you could find the beginning of all things??!!