Why is it that statistical, the more educated you are, the less likely you are to believe in god?

Question

For example, in very primitive countries like Afghanistan, the belief in god is close to 100%, whilst in western countries such as Sweden, its closer to 23%. Also in countless studies of scientists, university professors and other learned men, this pattern is continued. Why do we think this might be?

Answer 1

I think it is because belief in a deity is illogical.

Answer 2

If you look at the distribution, your guesses are off. Basically, you have the cause and effect reversed. Educated people are less likely to believe, but it's split at the top. The least educated people are almost universally believers; in other words people less likely to gain higher education are generally religious. Those without intellectual curiosity are unlikely to change the status quo. It should be noted that there is a difference in the manifestation at the bottom where there is a dismissal of causation and a simplistic attribution of everything to a plan, and at the top where there is detailed theology.

Answer 3

As Delta said the more educated you are the more your able to think for yourself. As for Sweden being 23% that could be that when they were converted to christianity nearly all document's of their belief's were destroyed. Take the temple at Uppsala, the christians destroyed it and built a church on the site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_at_Uppsala
Belief in one god was already established in the Middle East before the emergence of Christ. ( The temple at Uppsala could also have been the feasting hall of the king's).

Answer 4

The more educated you are the more likely it is that you are identified with the thinking mind. The more you are identified with the thinking mind the less likely you can go beyond its limits. To someone who is completely identified in this way to stop thought is tantamount to ceasing to exist. To be able to access the depth of existence and come face to face with the Divine one must pay attention to what exists beyond the thinking mind. Fear of annihilation keeps those identified with the thinking mind from exploring past the boundaries of conceptualization.

Answer 5

Your information is misleading, and incorrect.

Canada and the USA are 75 percent Christian..then you add in all the other religions that are theistic like Jews, Muslims, and Theistic Pagans..The USA and Canada have the highest levels of education in the world. Your theory doesn't work.

Facts

Almost 8 out of 10 Swedes are members of the Church of Sweden - 7 million.
Only 1 in 10 Swedes thinks religion is important in daily life.
Around 7 out of 10 children are christened in the Church of Sweden.
Just over 5 out of 10 weddings take place in church.
Almost 9 out of 10 Swedes have Christian burials.
Islam has around 130,000 adherents in Sweden (more according to Muslim sources).

Elaine Ecklund, and Christopher Scheitle questioned 2,198 faculty members in the disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, economics, political science, and psychology from 21 elite U.S. research universities. Overall, 75% of professors contacted completed the survey. Among the different disciplines, disbelief in the existence of God was not correlated with any particular area of expertise:

Disbelief in God by Academics Discipline %
Physics 40.8
Chemistry 26.6
Biology 41.0
Overall 37.6
Sociology 34.0
Economics 31.7
Political Science 27.0
Psychology 33.0
Overall 31.2

Answer 6

Because they seek truth and fact over having belief and faith....

Seeking truth and fact, is just that, they are always seeking, for more information, more proof, better answers, a higher level of understanding, a greater challenge....

Having belief and faith, is just that, they just believe it, without seeking further information, because to question there faith is to have no faith at all (at least that is what i have been told by many Christians, which i find exceedingly sad and alarming)

Answer 7

More to do with people thinking for themselves than education. In Afghanistan there are probably more consequences for not believing. In other words - people are forced into believing something and have no other choice.

Answer 8

the more thinking person you get, the more critical you can also get. Of course, there are intelligent believers, and dumb atheists. Frankly I don't mind if you want to believe in God or not. That for me is not important.

Answer 9

Because the more information we pack into our brains...the less sense we really have. If any man lack wisdom, have him ask it of God..who will supply all men liberally...

Also, the smarter we become, the less we think we need God. Not a giant leap forward in my book.

Answer 10

Most academic institutions are skewed against religion, and we are all susceptible to being followers of teachers.....