Religiousness and intelligence

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Religiousness and intelligence is an area of intelligence research. Some peer-reviewed studies have found that various measures of intelligence, as well as social and economic factors that are associated with intelligence, such as higher education and interest in science, are also associated with less religiosity. Individuals with a high degree of religiosity and those without can be found at every IQ level; the findings only refer to group averages.

Studies which attempt to predict intelligence are often met with harsh criticism, and many argue that such attempts are ultimately futile or will only be used to justify discrimination. Many of the issues raised about attempts to correlate race and intelligence can also be applied to religiousness and intelligence.

Published studies of religiousness and intelligence have been predominately performed in the US, which has a much higher level of religiosity than other developed nations.[1] A 1996 Gallup poll in the US found that 96% of adults believe in God or a higher being, 90% believe in an afterlife, and 87% say religion plays a very important role in their lives. These statistics are comparable to those found in other studies.

Contents

1 Older studies 2 Recent studies 2.1 Highly educated groups 3 Opinions of famous intellectuals 4 Interpretations 5 See also 6 References

Older studies

The following is a summary of the literature^{Terman, 1959). Sixty-two percent of men and 57 percent of women claimed "little religious inclination" while 28 percent of the men and 23 percent of the women claimed it was "not at all important."}

A study of Mensa members found that they had much less religious beliefs than the typical American college alumnus or adult (Southern and Plant, 1968). It is not clear whether Mensa members are representative of high IQ people in this regard.

Students attending higher-ranked schools have less religious beliefs than those attending lower-ranked schools (Caplovitz and Sherrow, 1977).

Recent studies

Clark (2004) writing in Explorations: An undergraduate research journal reported that religious belief and behavior were negatively correlated with SAT scores in the USA (PDF version of the paper).

Highly educated groups

In one study examining people in the USA, 90% of the general population surveyed professed a distinct belief in a personal god and afterlife, while only 40% of the scientists with a BS surveyed did so, and only 10% of those considered "eminent."^{Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) called religion "the opium of the people," implying that religion is a strategy used by the elite to control the masses. Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) believed that religion was a reflection of immature mental representations of the father. In his Nobel prize acceptance speech, Steven Weinberg (b. May 3, 1933) expressed his view that "religion is complete nonsense".}

On the other hand, famous religious intellectuals include:

• Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
• Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)
• Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) (Cartesian)
• Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) (Unitarianism)
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716) (Cartesian)
• Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) (Deism)
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)
• C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)
• John Spong (b. June 16, 1931)
• Desmond Tutu (b. October 7, 1931)

Before the Age of Enlightenment (18th century), it is difficult of find any person who openly claimed to be agnostic or atheist, one reason being that this was crime potentially punished with death in many countries.

Interpretations

Attempted interpretations[6] include that more intelligent people are more successful and thus have less need for religion. One argument against this is that the correlation exists also among students. A more controversial interpretation is that religious beliefs are more illogical and incoherent than secular beliefs, something recognised more quickly by those with higher intelligence.

See also

• Psychology of religion
• Religion
• William James

References

1. ^  Burnham P. Beckwith. (Spring, 1986). The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith. Free inquiry. Summary available [here.
2. ^  (September, 1999). Scientific American.
3. ^  (1998). Sceptic. vol.6 #2.8
4. ^  (1998). Nature. 394 (6691), 313. [7]

• Shermer, M. (2000). How we believe. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman. Google Print

See also: Religiousness and intelligence, Agnostic, Atheist, Augustine of Hippo, Baruch Spinoza, C. S. Lewis