Too Smart For Our Own Good

Recently a parishioner emailed me an online article entitled:  Religious People Are Less Intelligent than Atheists, Study Finds.  Some quotes from the article follow.

A team of researchers 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.   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.  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.” 

“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.”

What’s in this article is nothing new.  It’s the same old rehash of anti-religion, anti-Christianity thought since time began.  Man invented religion because he didn’t know any better and needed a crutch to lean on.  But I would like to address some items in the article that people over the ages have used as an argument for not believing in God, anyway.

The amoeba is the most basic of life forms, and yet the amoeba has no knowledge or clue as to our existence.  Because amoebas can neither see us or communicate with us, doesn’t mean that we don’t exist.  It just means that we are a higher life form.  So when it comes to the existence of God, why can’t science hypothesize that we are like amoebas and God is like humans—a higher life form?  I am also amused at science and space exploration always in search of life (higher, more intelligent) forms on other planets and for.  Science hypothesized in 1969 that there must be higher, more intelligent life out there somewhere as NASA included a plaque on the legs of the first manned lunar lander with a drawing of humans and where we are in the solar system so that someday more intelligent beings would be able to find us.  So if science thinks the possibility exists that there are higher life forms out in the universe somewhere, then why can’t one of those higher life forms be God—a life form so much more intelligent than we are that it (He) created us?  That thought isn’t “irrational” but one of logical conclusion and common sense (at least to my puny little mind).

The Bible describes our sin as disobedience and rebelliousness.  Perhaps denial of religion and rejection of the concept of God has nothing to do with intelligence but everything to do with attitude and heart?  When children reach their teenage years they are at a time in their lives where they rebel against parental authority.  They find their parents rules to be a little too strict and lacking any sense; they find these rules to be restrictive and confining in terms of their preferred lifestyle.  They are also at that age where they don’t view their parents as cool—in fact, all too often they see their parents as a public embarrassment and try to distance themselves from them as much as possible lest their peers link them together and they be branded as uncool.  As I look back on the 60’s, wasn’t that the entire Baby Boomer generation acting the same way—rejection of the “establishment” as “old fashion” and “out of date”?  Wasn’t the 60’s the generation of forget the rules and do what you want to do as long as you don’t hurt anybody else?

Maybe, just maybe, the rejection of religion, particularly Christianity, isn’t so much about intelligence as it is a rebellious heart.  We want to do our own thing, go our own way.  Isaiah 53:6 does say “that we are like sheep, everyone going his own way”.  And Paul writes in Romans 1:18 . . .”men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped the created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.  Amen.”

People who reject religion may be smart, but perhaps too smart for their own good.