Even if they are smart doesn't mean that they are confident. There are people in this world who cannot fathom that we are not so special and that when we die that is it.

My mother was an accountant who started school taking pharmacy, and represented herself in court numerous times even winning against the oil companies. Her favorite hobbies were mind puzzles, crosswords, sudoku, etc. Yet she was christian, and believed in reincarnation, practiced palmistry, and handwriting analysis, as well as she had a quija board...

Inversely I have met some outright dimwits who happen to be atheists or agnostics. So it's not as simple as smart people reject supernaturalism and only lower intelligent people believe or have faith

Smart is a kind of loaded term. To most people that word means you are competent at something. It does not imply you are good at reasoning, nor does it imply you have had a good education. Most people I consider "smart" are people that will eventually become Athiest or Agnostic, this is a process though as you have to essentially invalidate axioms that you were given. It's not easy, and some people never do, but the more curious you are and able you are of holding and understanding different concepts, the more likely you are to loose "faith" in the standard view of religion. Most cases where this does not happen, I feel, is a lack of examination of the religion in question.

If someone is afraid it doesn't matter how smart they are they're going to believe what they need to believe in order to get through life

They might be smart depending on how they describe god.

How can you believe in a non existent person , that would be believing fairy tales are facts or bigfoot is real !! Or I believe Trump is the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz !!

I would have thought it's a combination of what you're brought up to believe and nothing happens to challenge it, there's almost a subconscious disconnect between god and reality, but I think the majority of people just don't scrutinise and question it because they don't need to.

"Religion makes smart people dumb" is my motto. The brainwashing starts at an early age and later in life they find it hard to break free. I truly don't get it myself since there are so many signs that prove this stuff was made up, like there is nothing mentioned about dinosaurs, plus the many natural disasters of old which are explained as acts of god, chariots of fire (meteorites). They must conform to their beliefs or go to hell and they believe it. They're prisoners to their own belief system as are so friggin many others.

We've been taught that belief in a god transcends intelligence, that god is a given so use your intelligence for other endeavors. Also, it's not socially acceptable be seen as anything other than a believer. As foe me, there may or may not be a god, but that is irrelevant. I'm on Earth for a certain number of years and then I'm gone. Nothing else matters. When an intelligent person turns his/her attention their existence, issues may become clearer.

Actually there have been many professional studies on the issue, and the results have been consistent...

The more intelligent a person is, the less likely they are to be a theist...

[journals.sagepub.com]

A similar relationship has been show regarding educational levels, and financial/material status.

I just ruminated this hypothetical example: Intelligent people who live within in-tact moderate religious social constructs can maintain them if they have no reason to examine those religious constructs. Their intellect can be applied to lots of practical, secular activities without ever wandering into the philosophical,spiritual domain. If their social support system disintegrates due to tragedy, betrayal, apathy, etc, then they will have the opportunity to examine what the function of those constructs were and become agnostic about philosophical/spiritual things.

If the religious social constructs they subscribe to are extreme then they can’t be intelligent.

I think one of the oddest was the author Graham Greene. He came from an Anglican-agnostic background but converted to Catholicism at Cambridge in the 1930s. When his contemporaries like Philby, Burgess, McLean and Blunt were embracing Communism.
Often described as the best English writer never to win the Nobel prize. He never was unquestioning of his faith or the absurdities of Catholicism. It was the mystery that drew him in.
Novels like "The power and the glory" and "Heart of the matter". Pushed the boundaries of faith to the limits and often brought him into conflict with the Vatican. He did throw light on a subject that many of us would dismiss.

Intelligence and faith are two disparate things. There are very intelligent believers and very low intelligence non believers (and everything in between). A lot has do with how you were raised, how you view the world, and how desperately you need have sense made out of a non sensible world (much like how children look to adults to help make sense of their confusing world).

Intelligence is vas concept, I am intelligent in my field of art as a wealthy man is intelligent in business.

If we were measuring in IQs. Atheist and other groups have a higher IQ than Christains. If we're measuring in emotions, christains would have a Monopoly. An EIQ would be moving closer to an balance intelligence.

Since 90℅ of biological scientist are non believers and I am a bio -organism first, not based on myth. It is better to take a realistic path. Rather than a blind faith, lost in space.

I think it’s not so much a matter of smart/stupid. It is about indoctrination from birth. It is not coincidence that kids take on the religion of their parents. Of course some will be the sort that ultimately make a different choice down the road. It comes down to whether or not you are the sort of person that demands hard evidence as in God appears on a cloud and the whole world sees it. Which, of course, is not necessarily proof that that being was the creator of all. Soft evidence as in look around you at the beauty of the world and that proves God exists. Some, myself included, would call that no evidence.
Lastly, are those that just believe because they feel it’s true. We are certainly living in the era of this belief. If you look at the number of things people now believe, not only with no evidence, but with actual hard evidence that the opposite is a fact. All the hot button issues of the day seem to fall under this category, from climate change to vaccines, people believe what they “feel”is true rather that what the facts show.
Happy times! ?

and it's human nature to want a comforting explanation for life, that everything is under control and all will be OK..

It's a notion that has confounded me for the longest time.. I don't claim to be super intelligent..but am curious as to the how & why highly intelligent people don't dismiss the existence of god out of hand...

Of course I realise and speculate that most do..but it is difficult to account for the rest..perhaps they hide in the long grass..to avoid ridicule or career barriers etc. ?

All the time. I am constantly perplexed by how people I know (who I know are reasonably intelligent, college-educated, professionals), could possibly have fallen for the bullshit that is religion? How can they believe that there is only one god and it cares about them?
Where the hell does that "disconnect" occur?

Your post begs the question: Are all atheists unusually smart (high I.Q.), people. When I came this site, I erroneously thought that to be true but after reading some of the member's posts, it is apparently not.

As to believers level of intelligence, I have come to believe that religious belief is a manifestation of social factors rather than a rational thought process. For instance, if one is brought up Catholic by Catholic parents from a Catholic family, live in a Catholic neighborhood, attend Catholic school, attend Catholic church, have all Catholic friends, one is not very likely to question the existence of God or see other faiths as being legitimate. Unlike myself (a high functioning Asperger's Syndrome person), most people are more influenced by social factors (personal interactions, friend's beliefs and actions, local social morays, etc.) than they are aware.

I've wondered the same thing. How can a person who I know is extremely intelligent and is required take fact based decisions to be successful be so entrenched in religion? The inconsistencies really grate on me. I don't speak up unless it is directed towards me, which it rarely is. One of these people has been very sick in the past. His social media updates are always followed by the thoughts and prayers type support. I also hope for competent and caring medical professionals for him.

Highly intelligent people over the centuries have put great effort into explaining and proving (to their own satisfaction) the existence of God. It's not a matter of intelligence. It has to do with a belief system and the premises of that system.

I see there are already a lot of ‘answers’ posted here, and suspect something to do with repetitive lies rearranging one's brain might be the best, but deep down - I suspect they know their’s is a lie.. They may suppress that realization to the end, but it has to be there.

They have to know, cuz every once in awhile they meet one of us. Good, honest people - telling it like it is, and how everyone initially perceives it. Nothing to gain, and often times taking a loss for our honesty … that can’t be lost on them..

From what I’ve witnessed, their entire persona has developed around the lies of religion, often their business relations, neighbors, family & friends, too. So they cling to the lie.

I suspect most have been in a situation where ‘both of you’ knew you’d never see the other again, thus share an honest thought or observation. When there, like an interstate rest stop.. I suspect I’m seeing and hearing ‘the real person’ … perhaps one of few times they feel free to be honest. I wonder how that feels to them, and how envious they must be of someone who gets to do that on a regular basis

My ex inlaws were very highly educated - Ivy League. Smith and Colgate. Very well read their entire lives revolved around their Congregational Church. My father in law was Deacon, my mother-in-law taught Sunday School and sang in the choir. They were very generous people,bringing Sunday dinner to the elderly and sick, and inviting lonely elders over for Sunday dinner. I respected them and their charity towards others, something I never saw in my Jewish parents.

There seems to be a need in some humans for somebody else (god) to be in charge of things that they do not understand and thus a need for a god.

I wonder the same thing. Just my own opinion, but I think believers are a tad feeble minded. But at the same time, I do know that a small percentage of the usa's leading scientists are believers so there is that. The majority, though, are agnostic or atheist. I tend to agree with Richard Dawkins that "the more you know, the less you believe".