Religion is for less intelligent people

[_Hades]

Don't shoot the messenger, long term studies show it.

[_Fence Sitter]

From the article

The answer may, however, be more complex. Intelligent people may simply be able to provide themselves with the psychological benefits offered by religion - such as “self-regulation and self-enhancement,” because they are more likely to be successful, and have stable lives.

If life is one big long struggle, it make sense to ask if there is some purpose behind the struggle.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think people should resist jumping on this bandwagon. The smartest man I ever knew, a nuclear physicist, is a devout Catholic. In fact, my Father-in-Law (RIP) who was a devout Mormon was extremely bright, and involved in highly complex development projects for various drone programs.

In other words, I'm not sure intelligence and religiosity can be correlated to any reliable degree.

- Doc

[_Kishkumen]

I think this is the key issue:

The answer may, however, be more complex. Intelligent people may simply be able to provide themselves with the psychological benefits offered by religion - such as “self-regulation and self-enhancement,” because they are more likely to be successful, and have stable lives.

If you are highly intelligent and satisfied with life, then you are probably less likely to seek out an alternative narrative than makes "sense" out of your misery.

Even if you are not all that satisfied with life, being highly intelligent and educated, you are less likely to believe that something as irrational as religion has anything to offer you.

Yet, even the highly intelligent are not necessarily wise, and being highly intelligent is not in every way an advantage over those of modest intellectual abilities.

There are clear advantages to living in a strong religious community, even if it means hanging out with a larger number of intellectually mediocre people to avail yourself of such benefits.

So, for those who prize their intellectual vanity above all else, such a study will provide them a wonderful sense of affirmation. Those who may not be so eager to pat themselves on the back, however, may take a more tempered approach to this research.

[_Kishkumen]

I think people should resist jumping on this bandwagon. The smartest man I ever knew, a nuclear physicist, is a devout Catholic. In fact, my Father-in-Law (RIP) who was a devout Mormon was extremely bright, and involved in highly complex development projects for various drone programs.

In other words, I'm not sure intelligence and religiosity can be correlated to any reliable degree.

- Doc

Even if there is a strong correlation, it does not necessarily mean that being irreligious is the best way to live.

[_Hades]

I think that as the world becomes more educated, religion will continue to lose its foothold.

Information is so easy to get now. If I would have had access to all the information sooner, I would have dropped religion sooner.

It's not just Mormonism and all of its problems. Now you can check out any and all religions and see just how crazy they all are. Religion, no matter the flavor, seems to take care of the same basic human needs. Religions were dreamed up by men in times when we had no good answers for our surroundings and human condition. People, by nature are resistant to change, but slowly we can let go of the beliefs of ancient man.

[_Kishkumen]

I think that as the world becomes more educated, religion will continue to lose its foothold.

That may be.

[_Jaybear]

I think people should resist jumping on this bandwagon. The smartest man I ever knew, a nuclear physicist, is a devout Catholic. In fact, my Father-in-Law (RIP) who was a devout Mormon was extremely bright, and involved in highly complex development projects for various drone programs.

In other words, I'm not sure intelligence and religiosity can be correlated to any reliable degree.

- Doc

Do you realize that your questioning the validity of 59 published (perhaps even peer reviewed) studies based on your anecdotal observation of two individuals?

Here is the results of a survey of NAS scientists in 1998 published in Nature that supports the correlation:

Our chosen group of "greater" scientists were members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Our survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality).

[_sock puppet]

From my missionary experience, people that were not as happy in life as others were more receptive to the religious notions.

I note that in other reported studies, the happiest adults are married without children, followed next by single without children, then married with children and finally single with children. These were self-reporting surveys. But given that on the whole of surveyed adults, marriage tends to make adults happier, children less so. I think that the children factor makes an adult more receptive to religion due both to the less happy factor associated with having children and then looking for "safe" social environs for their children. (I put "safe" in scare quotes because of the history of Scout and church leaders having molested young children associating in religious contexts.)

Also, on my mission single people that were more intelligent/educated were welcoming us in for a first discussion as lesser intelligent/educated single people. Rarely did the more intelligent/educated accept our requests for a second meeting, unless the first meeting had essentially become a debate (mild--never had sharp ones while I was out).

However, married people living in the same neighborhoods as the more intelligent/educated singles that would let us in, usually would not let us in or talk at all. So I couldn't really assess their levels of intelligence or find out about their education levels.

[_dryfly]

It seems as if religions will continue to provide meaning and comfort for the vast majority of humans, but as we have seen, the trend, especially for those in the sciences and especially those breathing the rarefied air within the National Academy of Sciences, is away from belief in supernatural religious dogmas.

I'm hopeful that this trend continues and that the number of humans believing in some near term catastrophic religiously based Armageddon, diminishes quickly and that the most radical fundamentalists within Christianity and Islam come to their senses but fast. It is very disturbing to me that such nonsense is still being taught in the 21st century given the amazing body of knowledge we have come to possess. It should be the goal of all religious moderates to out compete the fundamentalist views within the major religions. That to me, would not only signify intelligence within religion, but would indicate that quality of thought accompanied that intellect.