Christians, I'm concerned...?

Question

***I just read this article and I'm concerned **** "The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith." It says that there is a trend, the more religious you are, the less education you have.
I'm a Christian so I'm not worried that Christianity is unintelligent, but why aren't Christians generally motivated to go to college and grad school?

Answer 1

...Im a christian and in college

Answer 2

Okay, the question was "why aren't Christians motivated to higher education?" They are. Christians go to college, get an education, get jobs and are productive. The effects of education on religious faith is real. the more a christian studies in formal school, the more they are introduced to philosophy and psychology. The higher the education, the more studying of other schools of thought; therefore, they are forced to either grow as Christians, ready to explain their beliefs, or to grow in secular beliefs which may be more mainstream and easier to deal with. But, I know that during my college ethics classes I was challenged to KNOW what I believed. Some kids did not end the class w/ their beliefs in tact. It is a personal issue, not a trend.

Answer 3

If I had to guess the article was looking at the fact that people attracted to mainstream religion usually have less going on in their life, while stereotypically speaking, those that have education and influence don't feel the need to connect with community or God. I don't know if these assumptions are actually factually supported. I hope the article sites sources and how they surveyed people otherwise I wouldn't give it too much weight.

Answer 4

There are three components to this and other studies. One: Intelligence is not related to religious belief. Two: There is a negative correlation between education and religious belief i.e. the more educated you are the more likely you are not to believe. Three: There is a negative correlation between cognitive skills and religious belief i.e. believers tend not to develop analytical skills or objective thinking.

Edit:
Education level is not the same as intelligence and studies confirming these findings have been done many times byt various researchers.

Answer 5

You may be also interested in

Frank Sulloway of MIT and Michael Shermer of California State University conducted a study which found in their polling sample of "credentialed" U.S. adults (12% had Ph.Ds and 62% were college graduates) 64% believed in God, and there was a correlation indicating that religious conviction diminished with education level.


For further information, see the research of Petty & Cacioppo into Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Shermer, Michael (1999). How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God. New York: William H Freeman, pp76–79. ISBN 071673561X

Answer 6

What the world calls "intelligent" is foolishness to God. Not to say that Christians are not as smart as anyone else, most simply do not make that the focus of their lives. God is. We know the Truth, and we live our lives according to God's will, not our own. Our main Book is the Bible, God's Holy Word. It is the manual for our lives.
The world puts too much emphasis on education and "getting some kind of degree" God doesn't care about that. He cares about our hearts and whether we are right with Him or not. I put my focus on where it belongs--Jesus Christ, not on trying to show everyone just how "intelligent" I can be. It doesn't matter to me whether you think I am intelligent or not. I only care what God thinks. God Bless

Answer 7

I'm agnostic and I wouldn't say that is true.. There are a lot of Christians who go to college and grad school. However, I think maybe people who are extremely fundamentalist and who have more tendency to have an us them attitude about their religion are the ones who are less likely to seek and education.

Answer 8

I'm a Christian and I hold an engineering degree, a technology degree, and 3 computer certifications. There are many Christian scientists. Google "Christian men of science". You are being mislead by the media. The mainstream media and Atheist forums would have you believe this. It is however, like many statements they put forth utterly false.

Answer 9

A possible explanation is that atheistic people are more driven to succeed in this life as they regard it the end all, be all. Intelligence may not be a factor in this study, and I would consider it a defective conclusion to claim "religion is for dummies" based on education statistics.

Answer 10

this is a very true statement.

The more religious someone is, the less educated they are. Its not true of ALL christians, but it is a very very very true trend.

The highest concentration of religious people are away from major cities and educational hubs.
The south, which ranks lowest in test scores according to the US census bureau, is also the heart of the bible belt, and tend to be more religious. The Costs, which tend to have more colleges, universities, higher test scores, better education, are less religious.

Thumbs down me all you want, but its fact.

Answer 11

It's not that they are not motivated to go to school. It's the fact that upon obtaining and education one learns that for example literally tons of factual information supports the big bang--evolution--etc. As one becomes educated one finds conflicts with religion--therefore it really is not surprising that belief in a fundamentalist faith for example would vary indirectly with the level of education. That article makes perfect sense.