Intelligence and Religiosity

What is the relationship between intelligence and religiosity? Are intelligent people generally non-religious? Do religious people generally lack analytic intelligence? Some researches seem to suggest that intelligent people are generally non-religious and religious people generally lack analytic intelligence.


Here’s a link to a report about this issue:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/08/new-meta-analysis-checks-the-correlation-between-intelligence-and-faith/

Here’s a link to an abstract of a scholarly paper about this issue:

http://psr.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/02/1088868313497266

I don’t find the suggestions of such researches surprising. They seem to support the general suspicions of many philosophers. As a matter of fact, St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1: 18 – 31 seems to even have the same suspicions about the relationship between intelligence and religiosity. For Paul, God called the ignoramuses of this world to shame the wise. I think that these findings can partly explain why religions tend to be the breeding grounds for many kinds of evil. Since religions naturally attract ignoramuses, who, due to their lack of analytic intelligence, are frequently prone to be overcome by their irrational impulses, the so-called “new atheists,” such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens, can reasonably accuse religions of being the roots of many profound evils. I’m aware that some of these cultured despisers of religion tend to exaggerate their claims about religion, as if it is the root of all evils. That seems too simplistic as an explanation for evil. The story seems to be much more complicated than that. Religion in itself is not necessarily the root of evil. Irrational religiosities, rather than religion itself, are possibly more to be blamed for many evils.

Obviously, these researches do not suggest the mutual exclusivity of intelligence and religiosity. So, intelligent religiosity must not be an oxymoron, at least from the standpoint of these researches. In other words, one can be intelligent and religious at the same time. I agree that it’s much easier to provide an account of positive associations between unintelligence and religiosity than an account of positive associations between intelligence and religiosity. For instance, if one uses her religion as a mere crutch to sustain her optimisms in the midst of helplessness and uncertainties in her own personal life, then she makes herself vulnerable to wishful thinking, self-deceptions, and all sorts of irrationalities. In that sense, religion is not conducive to a rational way of living.

According to the interpretations of the scientific data by a group of researchers, intelligent people are generally non-religious, because they are generally non-conformists, analytical thinkers, and self-sufficient. As non-conformists, they tend to resist religious dogma. As analytical thinkers, they tend to undermine religious beliefs. As self-sufficient, they tend to lack a need for religious beliefs and practices. Let’s assume that these interpretations are correct. So, a religious person who is a non-conformist, an analytical thinker, and self-sufficient can be reasonably considered as intelligent. A non-conformist does not need to necessarily resist every religious dogma. I think that what make non-conformism an intellectual virtue have to do with the other intellectual virtues that are commonly associated with it, such as open-mindedness or a sense of discomfort towards the tyrannical rule of customary beliefs. An analytical thinker does not necessarily undermine all religious beliefs. I think that what make analytical thinking an intellectual virtue have to do with what we consider as its essential properties, such as a philosophical habit of mind, the ability to make significant, reasonable, and sophisticated distinctions among different ideas or concepts, etc. A self-sufficient person does not necessarily lack any need for religious beliefs and practices. One can definitely be religious and, at the same time, reliant on herself for regulating or controlling her reactions to her impulses, needs, emotions, problems, unfavorable circumstances, etc. As a matter of fact, Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels was a non-conformist, an analytical thinker, and a self-sufficient person. Nevertheless, he was religious. He resisted and undermined the reigning form of religiosity that was embodied in the teachings and practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees, in order to establish a religious ethos that is more intellectually satisfying and infused with a self-perpetuating vitality.