Why are religious people so close minded. How can an intelligent person really "believe?

Answer 1

The answer is an intelligent person can get trapped in the lies and indoctrination we dwell in, but to my understanding, if you are a honest person and try to follow "by the book" the things in the bible, you will eventually find out that there are a lot of contradictions there... a true honest person would eventually get dissapointed about religion, the bible and "god".

So for me is more about how honest and true you really are, for me believers are not merely unsmart, they are dishonest, untrue and live with a doble moral.... For that reason, they tend to BLAME the atheist of being "the bad guys".
Life is not without a sense or irony uh?!

Answer 2

Maybe we're not close minded. It takes an open heart to even consider the spiritual side of reality. If you truley believe this then consider those who believed in God or at least in a god. Sir Issac Newton the father of physics was a regular attender of church. Einstine believed God gave him the formula for E=Mc2 through a dream. C.S. Lewis who attended Oxford as a devout aethiest only to end up writing books on Gods greatness due to finding there is more proof to God then disproof now what proved to him there is a God I don't know. One of the most wisest well known kings Solomon believed in God. An intelligent person can believe in God just by observing the world he or she lives in. You can't just ignore the paranormal which happens quite a bit. There are some things science can't explain and will never be able to. I am not against science I think someone who truley is looking for the answere to the question "Is there a God" and truley hunts for the truth will find it but if you come with the mentality "there is no God" then your going to form your biased conclusion and spin all evidence leading yourself to allowthe only conclusion there is no God. Consider this... I have never been married or studied phsycology in a college. Yet people claim I am as wise as a seventy year old and people come to me for phsycological problems and marriage problems. I am only twenty five and I give all my wisdom in the name of God.

Answer 3

I am a religious person, and I am very open-minded. I do think that some religious people are closed-minded because of fear and ignorance, but that is a pretty broad generalization.

Answer 4

Scientists and politicians and business leaders are all no
doubt vey intelligent people. But majority of them drink alcohol that kills, a good number of them smoke and cancerize their lungs that all kills them. They also eat pig's meat and sleep with women who are not their wives.

When a simple poor religious man reminds them that all these activities you are doing may get you punished on the Day of Judgement then he says,

"you religious people are narrow minded".

Now my question is

"which one of all the above is more intelligent"?

Answer 5

"Close minded" and religious really don't go together. The mind must be fully open in order to believe that which cannot be seen or proven, but come to by faith. It takes intelligence and courage to accept a belief on faith alone.

Answer 6

there is no real connection between intelligence and belief. I'm a smart person and don't, and I know smart people who do.
what is interesting is that intelligent people often believe even stronger because they are smart enough to fool themselves.

Michael Shermer wrote about this phenomenon in "Why People Believe Weird Things".

Answer 7

Whoa.

Not such a broad brush, please. I have many believing friends who are very open-minded. One is a mathmetician who looks at equations with the same awe drooling frat boys look at strippers.

I know many believing scientists, academics and just nice smart people. I have two friends who are pastors- they are open minded and very helpful to those in need. Both are attornies!

Please say "fundamentalist". There are many nice and open minded believers here.

Answer 8

Because religion evolved from God's advanced scientific knowledge and atheism evolved from mankind's ancient scientific knowledge. So religion, even though it is a mistranslation of God's scientific knowledge, is the intelligent choice.

Answer 9

Plenty of intelligent people believe.

Answer 10

many religious people misunderstand what their religion is actually saying. I can assure you there are many religious people that are intelligent, questioning, non-judgmental, and accepting. you only notice the vile ones.