<p>I heard that the more educated you are, the more likely you are to be agnostic/atheist. Is that true?</p>
<p>thats an opinion, probably not supported by fact. but many of the smartest people are at least agnostic.</p>
<p>well the more intelligent you are, the more you are able to be hurt and affected by whats around you. So in a farfetched way, it can probably be concluded that smart people see things about religion that less intelligent people don't. for instance, intelligent people are probably more skeptical, see a lot of holes in religious theory and arent comfortable with not having answers. therefore they choose not to believe in religion. idk, that was kind of a "rant" lol</p>
<p>Remember folks, cause I can smell a flame war brewing, correlation =/= causation.</p>
<p>I think more educated and intelligent people are more likely to base things off of science and be in general: analytical, skeptical, and logical people. They will probably be less likely to listen to whatever is told to them and want reliability and sources, and stuff that makes sense to their educated self. However, I'm sure you can find tons of incredibly smart/bright people who are very religious.</p>
<p>This will end badly, so I'm only going to say this once:</p>
<p>Generalization=bad.</p>
<p>Also...just because you are "educated" (which is a subjective term, if you ask me) doesn't mean you want answers to everything. It's called a FAITH for a reason. I consider myself fairly well-educated and intelligent, and I'm very religious.</p>
<p>I'd like to see the fact that backs up this proposal. If you "heard" it, it's most likely someone's opinion and not a fact.</p>
<p>"You can educate yourself right out of a relationship with God." -Tammy Fae Bakker</p>
<p>There seems indeed to be a correlation between intelligence and religious skepticism, though there is a lack of hard data to back it up. This is not to imply religion is "stupid", just that a higher degree of intellectualism tends to elicit a certain curiosity of the complexities and diversity of world views. Essentially, the question from which springs the source of initial religious doubt is "Why are my beliefs more valid than those of anybody else?"</p>
<p>Although there is a certain humility involved in rejecting one's faith, it ironically may also be an issue of egotism and self-esteem. Religion is quite the equalizing medium, and those who rank themselves high in terms of mental capability can find it demeaning to "condescend" to the same spiritual plane as everybody else.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the reason most discussions on religion so quickly degrade into insult-fests is the lack of mutual civility on each side. It is not required that people agree with the beliefs of others, or even respect them for that matter. It is, however, necessary to be able to engage in discussion without insulting or provoking the other side.</p>
<p>How can you instantly imply that intelligence and religiousness share a direct correlation? Just because someone recognizes God doesn't mean they aren't intelligent. Most religious folk aren't the stereotypical 'southern baptist bigots' you see on TV.</p>
<p>Dalai Lama is a well-educated man. So how could he not believe in God? As someone said earlier in this thread, the generalization is BAD. And with that said, the question you are asking has a relative response.</p>
<p>Hopefully this thread will go about civilly....</p>
<p>I believe trivialSublime has made the best post so far, though.</p>
<p>My own personal experiences have lead me to think that more education equates to a lessening of religion. My cultural anthropology and sociology classes tend to go on this line of thinking as well. Most higher education is very liberal, anyhow. If it weren't for my AP English III teacher, I would say definitely that the more intelligent you are, the less religious you are; however, my English teacher has to be the most brilliant man I have met. His IQ is most likely in the upper 190's to 200. However, he is a devout Catholic. He never spoke of his religion though. Very odd. </p>
<p>As you can tell, generalizations are going to be a big no-no! ;)</p>
<p>It's hard to make such generalizations. There are some very educated people who believe in God; there are some high school dropouts that don't. My guess would be that it's a very weak direct relationship.</p>
<p>"Dalai Lama is a well-educated man. So how could he not believe in God? "</p>
<p>I am fairly sure that the Dalai Lama is an atheist, as is true of many Buddhists. One can follow a spiritual path, but not believe in God.</p>
<p>Great post, trivialSublime.</p>
<p>I agree with much of what's been said. The process of educating oneself involves being skeptical and willing to understand and accept other viewpoints. In that way, at least, being educated means that you are willing to accept that you are not necessarily right, especially when it comes to things that are not cold, hard fact.</p>
<p>It also depends on what you mean by intelligent, though. If you mean someone who is scientific, logical, factual, then I'd say that there's almost certainly a connection. If you mean brilliant, creative, not afraid to defy societal norms, then I'd say it really depends on the person.</p>
<p>Nope not true.</p>
<p>You know how many Educated Jewish people there are in this world. They dominate acadamia in many major colleges, and many of them are religious. They also dominate the finance industry and even media.....does that make them "not believe?"</p>
<p>not rly</p>
<p>"Jews make up well over one-fifth of the student body in America's most prominent institutions of higher learning:"</p>
<p>They are only like 2% of the population....</p>
<p>'nuff said?</p>
<p>I initially agreed with the OP, but some good arguments have been made in this thread on the side of religion.</p>
<p>However, I still think there are <em>some</em> religious people that are complete idiots.</p>
<p>High religiosity in the United States is probably not the best thing. </p>
<p>
[quote]
There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and
mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A good paper [url="<a href="http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2005-11.pdf%22%5Dhurr.%5B/url">http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2005-11.pdf"]hurr.[/url</a> They talk about the education factor as well. </p>
<p>But it's a very complex topic and social trends/measures come about through a number of interacting factors, not a single marker (such as religiosity) that demonstrates an accurate one-to-one relationship. I'm looking forward to seeing which religious nut/irate atheist loses their cool first.</p>
<p>Intelligent people tend to question religious beliefs and explore other schools of thought. Some come to the concluson that religion is right for them. Some don't. The correlation comes from the fact that many (not all!) unintelligent people just blindly follow whatever religion they were born into.</p>
<p>
[quote]
High religiosity in the United States is probably not the best thing.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Religiosity! I think that is my new favorite word lol!</p>
<p>It IS a word...</p>
<p>and to stella.......ummm, religion is just faith....</p>