I do not think we needed a research to confirm this…It is obvious that highly intelligent people will not fall for superstitious beliefs including the God theory…
Believing without evidence (faith) undermines the use of ones thinking faculty—-it is therefore not shocking that those with higher intelligence are less likely to believe in God (now I am sure you know where I belong)…
According to DailyMail;
A new study claims to have conclusively proved that the more intelligent a person is the less likely they are to believe in God.
Psychologists Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman of the University of Rochester and Judith Hall of Northeastern University have published their review of 63 studies conducted between 1928 and 2012 in this months Personality and Social Psychology Review.
While they admit their findings are ‘not new’, the psychologists embarked on a systematic analysis of almost one hundred years of studies into the correlation between intelligence and religiosity and found that atheism is rife among clever people.
Defining intelligence as the ‘ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience,’ the three psychologists defined these skills as analytical, reasoned forms of intelligence.
On the other hand, religiosity was defined as a belief in the supernatural, offering gifts to this supernatural and performing rituals affirming their beliefs according to an article in Arstechnica.com.
Backing up their findings, Zuckerman, Silberman and Hall, examined the 1921 study by Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford Univeristy who named his review, the Terman cohort of the gifted.
In the study, Terman recruited 1,500 children whose IQ exceeded 135 at at the age of 10.
This data was re-examined by Robin Sears at Columbia University in 1995 and by Michael McCullough at the University of Miami in 2005.
The overall conclusion of both these reviewers was that the children were less religious when compared to the general public.
However, what was remarkable about the data collected by Terman was that in spite of their atheism, 60 percent of the children he studied were brought up in ‘very strict’ religious homes.
The second great study that was examined by Zuckerman, Silberman and Hall was based on New York’s Hunter College Elementary School for the intellectually gifted.
Graduates with IQ’s over 140 aged between 38 and 50 were contacted and it was found that only 16 percent had derived any personal satisfaction from religion.
When countries were examined by Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster in 2009, the positive correlation between intelligence and atheism was a strong one.
While the data shows the positive correlation between intelligence and lack of religiosity, Zuckerman, Silbreman and Hall were more concerned with the reasons why.
One possibility the three researchers hit on was that intelligent people are less likely to conform and therefore more likely to resist relgious dogma.Indeed, they discovered a correlation between the rise in atheism of intelligent people if they live in religious communities because they do not want to conform.
The most common explanation is that intelligent people do not like to accept any beliefs that cannot be tested according to an article in Arstechnica.com
The final reason they hit upon was that intelligence and its merits provides the function of religion to those who are blessed enough to have a high IQ.
Also, although the review encompasses all studies conducted from 1928 to 2012, it only does so for studies written in the English language.
And Zuckerman also warns that, despite there being thousands of participants overall, ranging among all ages, almost all of them belong to Western society.More to the point, 87 percent of those involved in the studies were from the U.S. the UK and Canada – making the study mainly about Protestants, not Jews or Catholics.
No shit sherlock!
Ok, Mr. Atheist, keep believing you are smarter than the rest of us who are humbled and “smart” enough to know that there is a higher power beyond our own human intelligence. Just so you know, there is a huge difference between knowledge (knowing things) and wisdom (knowing that you don’t know everything).
@Kevin, This is a clear exhibition of unintelligence. Where in the article did you see the word “knowledge”? A knowledgeable person is not necessarily an intelligent person. Everyone is capable of obtaining knowledge but not everyone is capable of acquiring intelligence. Acquiring intelligence is a huge responsibility; lazy people can’t handle it and people who are scared to find any information that contradicts their ideas/beliefs can’t handle it either!
Talking about higher power; what if the higher power is Allah, or what if the higher power is Buddha. I haven’t personally met any humble person who call him/herself humble. That brings out my question; who is a humble person? Who do you define as “the rest of us”? And what makes “the rest of [you]” humble?
No wonder you’re the most intelligent person on earth!
So?
Thanks Kevin, and Maame Yaa the higher power is the (LORD GOD ALMIGHTY) which consists of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit the creator of the universe. And there are some humble people in the world, else the word (humble) wouldn’t exist.
@Akua Boakye, I never said there are no humble people in the world. Please, read very carefully and understand before you reply. I don’t like it when people ignorantly put words in my mouth. Kevin classifies himself and “the rest of us” (whatever he meant by that) as humble people and I asked him to define a humble person. Since you know as much as he does, can you kindly educate me?
Kevin said there is a higher power, he never said what it was but I see you can read his mind. But don’t you think someone else is busily claiming the higher power to be Allah, Buddha, or Science? Which of these robots should I believe? Absolutely the one who can prove the exaggerated claims!
By the way, there is something that bothers me about YOUR higher power and as His earthly spokesperson, I will like to ask you a question and I hope that your godly brain will answer me. I wouldn’t dare put my enemy in a hot water! If a person fails to obey any of His commandments, he will put the person in a h.e.l.l of a fire to burn and suffer, but he loves the person!!! This does not belong in the resume of a loving person. Now you tell me, why would any wise, kind, loving, and a forgiving person burn any one simply because the person doesn’t agree with his/her rules?
@Maame Yaa, Sad, very sad Maame Yaa. I feel so much sadness for you. May God have mercy on you and forgive you for your words.
@Akose, Look around you; war, disease, poverty and all. Direct your sadness in that direction. Throw emotions out of the window and use the brain God gave you instead of wasting it. Don’t you think that is a dishonest to Him? Would you set your mum on fire if she steals all your property? Stealing is forbidden according to “the commandments”, right?
God forgave me even before you put your dirty hands on the computer to type “forgive”! That is why he sent His son to die, isn’t it? Of course, I know this is a Ghanaian website and I was expecting huge number of unintelligent hypocritical mindless religious robots to disagree with me. Take your sadness to your church house and shove it down the throat of the fake annoying women who wear disgusting wigs and weaves.
Believing without evidence huh. Maybe you should oneday try catching the air you breathe, fold it and present it to your scientist as an evidence of AIR. After all you need to see something before you believe it.