Are People With Low IQs More Likely To Be Religious?

Question

I mean there are people out there who believe that the Bible is a literal history of the world and that the universe was created in about a week some 6,000 years ago!

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/earthage.html

Do they believe this because they are badly educated or do they just have a low IQ?

Lloydwaycott: You have a nerve calling me uneducated and arrogant.

If only you would read a few more history books instead of writing pompous, absurd comments on this site then you would know that James Ussher calculated with reference to the chronology in the bible that the universe was created in 4004 BC, some 6,000 years ago.

This analysis was accepted by the Roman Catholic Church as being accurate up until the mid 19th century when Darwin blew this particular religious nonsense away!

Answer 1

Some are unintelligent, some are badly educated, some are deluded and, of course, some were brain-washed by faith schools as children.

It never fails to shock me that in this day and age people can actually still believe in this primitive mumbo-jumbo as their 'faith' falls at even the slightest critical analysis.

They can't even accept the theory of evolution as having any basis in truth. If they did it would either mean that humans 'developed' a soul at some stage of their evolution which sets them apart from other animals, or alternatively that all animals, including bacteria and insects, have souls too. This would mean that all life-forms on this planet go to heaven when they die.

Either way it makes no sense!

Answer 2

I really cannot understand the argument. I am a believer in God and yet I am also a believer in the true age of the planet. It all boils down to once education and beliefs. There is no right or wrong belief in anything of this nature. There is no low or high IQ in belief that is purely in thought and heart of the individual. And definitely the world was not created 6,000 years ago. But there is no saying that the universe or this planet was not created by a Higher Being.

Answer 3

anyone can be 'conditioned' to believe in something, IQ has little to do with it.

In fact i would venture to say those with high IQ's are more susceptible to Religon. IQ measures the amount of activity in someones brain, ***it does not however stipulate how this energy is directed rational or otherwise*** and high IQ person would be directed more to religon to find some meaning to life, therefore there are many intelligent people out there believing in and working for cults like scientology.

Mainstream Religon is just a cult in a less extreme, more diluted form.

Answer 4

I think what you are trying to say is that people with a higher IQ who may be more intelligent and more educated would question organised religion more than lower IQ or less educated people.

Some are more aware and are less likely to be controlled.

Some have their religion and faith instilled in them so long that they accept it and dont question it, even though bits of it may not fit with what they have experienced in life.

It takes a brave person to question the long standing authority of their organised religion and to break ranks in favour of something more.

Answer 5

I have an embarrassingly high IQ. I am, though, undecided on the Question of the Bible, or religion in general for that matter, as I would like to think that I am intelligent enough to realise that there is insufficient evidence to make a confident judgement. Also, as I have said eleswhere, there is no real proof to support the alternative religion of atheism. Either way, it's a choice based on faith.
There is proof, of course, judging by the poor grammer and overall tone of your question, that you are poorly if not "badly" educated yourself, and without doubt have an unimpressive IQ. For instance, anybody with even a modicum of intelligence would realise that the Bible does NOT say that the universe was created in six days 6,000 years ago. So even if the Bible was wrong, please get your facts correct before posting such ill-thought out questions here please.
I'm so tired of so much ignorance and arrogance on this forum.
P.s. The dating you are referring to in you're addendum, is just one faction of Christianity's calculation of the age and so forth of the Earth, (not "the Universe" as you so mistakenly suggested), and therefore as prone to massive human error as carbon dating. Basically it's not much more than an opinion. And, let's face it, even idiots like you can have one of those. And as for Darwin blowing previous ideas out of the water, why then does he state in the prologue to 'Origin Of Species', his continued belief in God? Oh, and by the way, your spelling and grammer are still awful. I wouldn't usually bring this up, but you were the one going on about low IQ and intelligence. May I just say "people who live in glass houses...etc."

Answer 6

Look at the state of the world as it is today, how often do you see anyone doing anything good? Do those people make it on newscasts? Do they make the headlines of the papers? No, the people making the headlines and newscasts are committing evil acts, and evil is anti-religion. Do you think that those people are behaving like people with high IQ's? Come on, now, surely not.

Answer 7

I do not believe they they have a low IQ,Yes some may lack education. They believe it mostly because is their faith and if you take that away from them, they have little to believe in

Sad really.

Answer 8

Probably. I mean people with low IQs probably don't make much money and religion is free so it's probably all they have. Plus I guess it's easier to just follow blindly than use that whole ability to think for themselves thing that "god" supposedly gave them and take everything literally.

Answer 9

I would say so. Although what is really needed to be a theist is not so much a low IQ as a lack of critical thinking ability. It really only takes a modicum of scepticism to see the utter inanity of some of the things they want to believe!

Answer 10

I dont think they are badly educated, or perhaps have a lower IQ, they are just gullible and havent grasped the concept of not believing everything you are told.