Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, study finds

Rob Waugh
Yahoo! News
Religious people are less intelligent than non-believers, according to a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades.

A team led by Miron Zuckerman of the University of Rochester found “a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of 63 studies. Even in extreme old age, intelligent people are less likely to believe, the researchers found - and the reasons why people with high IQs shun religion may not be as simple as previously thought.

For instance, intelligent people are more likely to be married, and more likely to be successful in life - and this may mean they “need” religion less.

The studies used in Zuckerman's paper included a life-long analysis of the beliefs of a group of 1,500 gifted children - those with IQs over 135 - in a study which began in 1921 and continues today.

Even at 75 to 91 years of age, the children from Lewis Terman’s study scored lower for religiosity than the general population - contrary to the widely held belief that people turn to God as they age. The researchers noted that data was lacking about religious attitudes in old age and say, “Additional research is needed to resolve this issue.”

As early as 1958, Michael Argyle concluded, “Although intelligent children grasp religious concepts earlier, they are also the first to doubt the truth of religion, and intelligent students are much less likely to accept orthodox beliefs, and rather less likely to have pro-religious attitudes.”

A 1916 study quoted in Zuckerman’s paper (Leuba) found that, “58% of randomly selected scientists in the United States expressed disbelief in, or doubt regarding the existence of God; this proportion rose to nearly 70% for the most eminent scientists.”

The paper, published in the academic journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, said “Most extant explanations (of a negative relation) share one central theme—the premise that religious beliefs are irrational, not anchored in science, not testable and, therefore, unappealing to intelligent people who “know better.”

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.

“Intelligent people typically spend more time in school—a form of self-regulation that may yield long-term benefits,” the researchers write. “More intelligent people get higher level jobs (and better employment (and higher salary) may lead to higher self-esteem, and encourage personal control beliefs.”

“Last, more intelligent people are more likely to get and stay married (greater attachment), though for intelligent people, that too comes later in life. We therefore suggest that as intelligent people move from young adulthood to adulthood and then to middle age, the benefits of intelligence may continue to accrue.”

The researchers suggest that further research on the “function” of religion may reveal more.

“People possessing the functions that religion provides are likely to adopt atheism, people lacking these very functions (e.g., the poor, the helpless) are likely to adopt theism,” the researchers wrote.


http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html;_ylt=Anl9d9Fy5h31I9rtU9tuQzoSscB_;_ylu=X3oDMTB1bHJlcDdhBG1pdAMEcG9zAzMEc2VjA2xuX1JlbGlnaW9uX2dhbA--;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

I hate it when people make "studies" like this. People just measure intelligence in a way to bring out the outcome that suits them.

Meh, you would think 'intelligent' people would know first that correlation does not equal causation. Second, you can do this sort of study with a whole heap of related factors such as wealth which have repeatedly been shown to be more relevant - wealth seems to result in education and atheism, not education resulting in atheism. In fact, the researchers noted that as the article says. Unfortunately, editors show just how unintelligent all humanity is by using such inaccurate and controversial headlines to sucker us all in to reading and commenting... Dang.

In other news just in, the pope is a catholic and water is wet.

Ozboy assuming he's better than others, there's a first

Damnit, I wanted to say 'inb4 ozboy'

Too late.

Explains Islam's lack of Nobel Prize winners...

Muhammad Yunus, Mohammed El Baradei, Orhan Pamuk and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan spring to mind.

Ironic as Iraq had the greatest libraries of man until Ghengis fucked shit up.

Islam was on the cusp of so much discovery even before Renaissance times.

Were miles ahead in things like Astronomy and Architecture.

-PB

Indeed.

That said, in the 100 years or so before the sacking of Baghdad the Muslim world was swaying towards the anti-intellectual works of Imam Hamid al-Ghazali. Part of his work included the beginning of the codification of Islamic Law.

Mathematics, Science, Literature as well as the things you listed were philosophically deemed works of the devil.

Islamic intellectualism still hasn't recovered.

I think it was more that he blurred the lines between intellectualism, science and Islamic belief systems to the point where faith became the dominant feature and the former two were abandoned.

Interesting to hear. The two smartest people I know are religious.

As the man says, peace prizes don't count.

:-s :-s

Sample doesn't hold true for this forum.

All I can say is

I Knew it :lol:

Pretty obvious really - religion is for people without the intellectual capabilities for thinking for themselves.

IF religious people are less intelligent, and thupercoach is an atheist, what's his excuse?

I don't think economics should count, either.

I have no issue with people of faith - but I would state that anyone who ignores science and historical fact in order to BLINDLY accept the contents of a book (written before most of the scientific discoveries were made) is a prize dullard. End of story. Not sorry if that offends anyone - it's reality.

The problem with research like the above is that it takes all of these dullards into account, which inevitably brings down the average IQ of the religious groups.

Why not?

Self-evident.

Lolol what a load of shit. Absolutely embarrassing to the human race that someone would publish this. Religious people have driven so much of man's development.

i could never live the way they do, but it's simply embarrassing when people disregard them.

Article on study of all religions.


Lets turn it in to an article to highlight how messed up Muslims are. It is only the Muslims who are effed up after all.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

-PB

This.

There is a surprising number of people of the mistaken belief that they have IQs over 135.

:lol: Given the average IQ in Australia is 108, there are a large number of people claiming to have bizarrely high IQ's.

That said, IQ is only a measure of potential, not of actual intelligence.