Does intelligence lead to atheism?
This would seem to suggest that being an atheist means one is also intelligent. This is not necessarily the case. I have met non-believers who are quite unintelligent; some who have arrived at their disbelief through irrational (and often unintelligent) conclusions.
Not exactly.
interesting reference/list
There's certainly a correlation but there's also some very intelligent believers and not so smart atheists. Also not clear if there's causation here. Does religiosity impede intelligence, perhaps by providing a one size fits all answer for everything that can dull curiously, does intelligence impede religiosity through questioning of doctrine and the ability to find other answers. Or is there a third common cause (e.g. cultural) which affects both. Could be that multiple factors affecting this correlation.
No. Critical thinking leads to atheism. Anyone can learn to think critically.
Intelligence leads to the realisatiom that there is no omnipotent off-planet rewarding and punishing Father God.
It also leads to the recognition that there is a creative consciousness which is the source and cause of the existence of all manifest things, evidently including us. And therefore gets keen seekers to search for what "that" might be .....
Creative consciousness? So, like a god? I respectfully disagree with that assessment.
No. Notice that there are a lot of intelligent religious folks and always have been. When our species finally buys into leading life with a bit more reason, we will see an acceleration of people moving toward not needing belief and absolutes. Critical thinking and reason lead to eliminating the need for the warm, fuzzy security blanket.
Usually, atheists are better at understanding reality than religious folk, though not necessarily.
Nah, I think that's painting with too broad a brush. There are people who are quite intelligent who believe in God or gods, though I think it's a blind spot for many. Although I think intelligence does help in shucking religion, it's by no means a forgone conclusion. I'll put it this way: There are myriad areas of intellect, so let's change one word in the question for another example. "Does intelligence lead to astrophysics?" For some, it certainly does. For others, absolutely not. Someone might be a brilliant wordsmith or psychologist or mechanical engineer, but that doesn't mean they have an aptitude for astrophysics, higher mathematics, etc. I think that's true for atheism, too, often relying on logic and an evidence-based rationale, with the added complication of breaking free of tradition, emotional attachment to faith, community pressure, family expectations, etc. It's an uphill battle for many people, and often not one they're effectively equipped to fight.
This guy's got the right idea.
I work with a lot of PhD Scientists and Chemists who are hardcore Xians and Mormons. It has to do with family upbringing and unwillingness to break away from tradition and the comfort of social groups.
Same. I have mormon friends that understand to forsake the church is to be forsaken by family, friends as well as the church. Socially held hostage.
Not necessarily.
Everyone knows some very intelligent folks who believe, and fervently so.
The difference is the faith in holy spirit - the hand of a god through woman and man that allows them to suspend an otherwise inquisitive nature.
They need it. Others dont.
Not really... I've heard people discuss how much more deep-rooted religion can be for an intelligent person, as they have a greater ability to rationalise and compartmentalise their beliefs. And from what I can see that's true — I know several friends/family members who are very intelligent but also entrenched in Christianity.
It probably comes more from well-applied skepticism — as LP said below — and a willingness to use critical thinking and challenge one's own world view. Hell, I still do that even after a lifetime of non-belief... I'm hugely into religious apologetics. There may yet be a strong argument in there that will force me to re-evaluate my position so I like to go looking for it. Not found it yet, mind; and they've had a couple of thousand years' head start.
I read an anecdote once about Einstein. I don't know if it's true but it was in a book. It goes like this:
Einstein was teaching a class for graduate students in physics and he asked for a show of hands for how many believed that the universe had a creator. No one raised their hand. Next he asked them, as a group, to estimate - of ALL of the knowledge that exists in the entire universe, what percent do we humans know. The students took a few minutes and came back with a figure of 5%, to which Einstein said that he personally thought it was quite a bit lower than that, but even if we humans did know 5% of all of the knowledge in the universe that that would not be enough to rule out the possibility of a creator, so therefore atheism was not logical, but agnosticism was.
And so I would conclude that intelligence leads to agnosticism, because an intelligent person must surely admit that there is just too much we don't know about the universe to rule out a creator. We might be a science experiment in a jar on some alien kid's dresser, or characters in some advanced simulation or game. We just don't have enough information to say what is out there.
No, but I think being more educated, skeptical and inquisitive does.
Exactly. I know some very smart uber religious people. But when you're brainwashed at such a young age (and not inquisitive) it's really hard to be open to change. The really smart ones find the most clever justifications to alleviate their cognitive dissonance.