Religion and intelligence

[Siro]

I'm aware of survey data demonstrating an inverse correlation between education and religiosity. I'm not sure this equates to 'smart people are areligious and less smart people are religious.' In fact, I'm very hesitant to draw this conclusion, except to note that general trend support the notion that education and tendency toward religious belief are not unrelated.

Personally in my circle of family, friends and acquaintances, I know many very intelligent people who ardent believers, so at the very least, high intelligence and religious belief are by no means mutually exclusive. (By religious belief here, I am referring to adherence to some kind of religious belief system as codified by a particular organized religion or sect.)

There is a great deal of writing and research on why presumably smart people believe in 'strange' things. Here's a link to an article describing some of this research: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/why-smart-people-are-stupid. A quick Google search will uncover much information on this topic.

One source I recommend is Michael Shermer's "Why Smart People Believe Weird Things." (Shermer is one of my favorite authors.) In a nutshell, smart people are very good at explaining/rationalizing beliefs arrived at by unsound means. There is a good deal of research to support this conclusion. I looked for a summary of one study I'm aware of that looked precisely at this, but I couldn't find it in the brief time I allowed to the search. To my mind, one of the best forums to see this phenomenon at work is among the LDS apologists--very smart people who have developed quite sophisticated, at times, methods to explain away problems with LDS history and beliefs (and at times quite silly methods). I would bet that few of these apologists would be willing to apply the same reasoning to explain beliefs they disagree with and would find efforts by others to do so lacking.

Thus looking to verify one's own beliefs by appealing to authority in the guise of a very smart person is probably not a sound way to proceed. Smart people can and do believe in all sorts of sh**.

I've met Shermer is real life. Let's just say that he's not a very nice person.

 

[babe]

I've met Shermer is real life. Let's just say that he's not a very nice person.

Smart and correct people often don't seem nice. Nice doesn't correlate well.

Neither does religion because religion is a subset of "nice" in most people's picture of themselves.

 

[babe]

@Jimmy

I think I can understand your particular take.

I took another different path because I chose not to attribute or equate specific human beliefs to "God".

 

[babe]

In my religion the power to choose is called agency and the only path a world order is through voluntary choice.

I note the early teaching of Joseph Smith regarding our identity as "intelligences" being eternal, uncreated beings. . .will rationally lead to an assertion that freedom to choose and act are the basis of many inherent human rights.

 

[Beer]

IMO, religion is a pacifier. It comforts you and makes you feel better when you need it. Your wife dies, its ok you'll see her in heaven. Stuff like that. I used to attend church as a kid and I never once heard anything discussed that wasn't common sense. Be nice to people, help out the needy, don't be a dick. Its all just logic.