Thursday, June 12, 2008 | Reason : In the News | print version

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Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

by Telegraph

Thanks to Linda Ward Selbie for the link.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.

A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.

Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.

He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."

He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.

"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.

Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".

Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

Have your say: Is faith linked to intelligence?

Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2008 | Permalink

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1. Comment #192069 by Tyler Durden on June 12, 2008 at 12:21 pm

One wonders if this is why the Catholic Church runs 90% (yes, 90%) of the primary schools (children 5 - 10 yrs approx.) in Ireland. Get them while they're young etc. Corrupt them early, and often.

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2. Comment #192071 by Quetzalcoatl on June 12, 2008 at 12:24 pm

I don't know about this. It does seem rather simplistic to suggest that greater intelligence means that you are less likely to believe in God. If you're caught early enough, then surely your faith will be just as strong?

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3. Comment #192074 by GSP on June 12, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Ahhh yes.... where would we be without pop-science?

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4. Comment #192077 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on June 12, 2008 at 12:27 pm

I saw the title and wondered why this was published in the Telegraph. The Telegraph? Then I saw who conducted the research, Richard Lynn. I now know why the Telegraph published. Sigh.

Let's not forget who Richard Lynn is.

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5. Comment #192102 by Duff on June 12, 2008 at 12:53 pm

"...a simplistic characterization of religion as primitive." Oh, say it isn't so!

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6. Comment #192103 by AdrianT on June 12, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I must say the responses to this on the Telegraph's website are better than I expected. Clearly not every reader is a raving bible bashing nutjob anymore...

The response to this by Christopher Howse, on why believers might be ' cleverer' was poor journalism, even by the newspaper's standards:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/06/12/do1205.xml&posted=true&_requestid=790670

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7. Comment #192105 by EvidenceOnly on June 12, 2008 at 12:55 pm

Seems very logical to me.

People with a higher IQ are more likely to use their brain.
They may grow up with the religious indoctrination that their ability to think critically is god-given but once they really grow up they start thinking more and more critically, helped by higher education.

This drives them in the one-way street of realization that there is no rational explanation for anything supernatural and mankind has created gods in its image contrary to what religions claim.

If you have the IQ and you're educated to use your brains, you need to have a severe split personality to hang on to religion.

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8. Comment #192107 by FightingFalcon on June 12, 2008 at 1:00 pm

If you're caught early enough, then surely your faith will be just as strong?

I was caught at a young age and became extremely devout. However, I would like to think that I'm a fairly smart individual and that my studying of religions caused me to doubt the validity of 2000 year old texts, burning bushes, virgin births, etc. Rather than seeing Christianity as unique, I saw it as one of many belief systems invented by humans to explain what we couldn't (as of yet) understand.

I have found GENERALLY that the more religious a society is, the less educated it is. This is well documented throughout history though and should be no surprise to anyone. Why did Imperial Spain contribute nothing to the sciences while Protestant Prussia and the Reformed Netherlands (both relatively open and tolerant societies) make tremendous advancements in science and math?

It should be no shock to anyone that having a closed mind that is brought about largely by religion should leave you less educated. This is common sense yet very hard for Theists to accept.

The less you study, the less intelligent you are. Period.

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9. Comment #192117 by RichardWolford on June 12, 2008 at 1:13 pm

I want to see his data; the parsimony is too much.

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10. Comment #192131 by JLD Calgary on June 12, 2008 at 1:31 pm

I have to agree with this articles premise, though I'd love to see some nice graphs with the details pulling it all together. I think we'd find though that the higher the IQ, the less religious. It just seems like common sense, I'm glad research is being done on it.

Take careful note about how those critics quoted in the article seem to be more concerned with whether it will make religion seem primitive or spawn hostility towards it without actually debating the scientific data.

Perhaps they are a bit too quick to pull the "don't hurt my feelings" card without actually looking at the information?

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11. Comment #192135 by Mango on June 12, 2008 at 1:35 pm

So most people are religious because most people are ignorant? It has its exceptions of course, but I think it goes a long way to explaining what we see in Western countries.

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12. Comment #192143 by rod-the-farmer on June 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm

I too am not sure the relationship with IQ is entirely true. I suspect it is a broader question than that. I think it is more EDUCATION that pushes people towards disbelief in god. After all, there HAVE to be a great many people in profoundly religious countries (e.g. some of the islamic ones) who have a naturally high IQ. But if they are denied a chance for a broad education in the sciences, what chance do they have to seriously consider the beliefs in which they were raised ? You need to be trained to question critically, and to use rational thought, before you can truly have any internal debate on the truth of religious beliefs. Why would you even question your beliefs, unless you had heard about the growth & history of science, and people like Galileo, Copernicus, Pasteur et al. Without examples from history, it would take a very special person indeed to discard their religion. A high IQ can easily be present in an ignorant person. To get the full potential in ANY field, from him/her, you need an education. And even those with average or slightly less IQ can be educated enough to make a personal decision about religious beliefs and any others they may have been "issued" by their social structure. Education is the key here.

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13. Comment #192146 by gyokusai on June 12, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Well, sounds like total bollocks to me.

^_^J.

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14. Comment #192150 by Mango on June 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm

comment 12 rod-the-farmer: But if they are denied a chance for a broad education in the sciences, what chance do they have to seriously consider the beliefs in which they were raised?

I agree with you. I think this correlation between IQ and disbelief is only applicable to Western countries (and assorted others) in which people have the opportunity (educationally and socially) to doubt and disbelieve in their society's ascendant supernatural beliefs. "Death to apostates" as a rule of law will keep someone from reading "The God Delusion" on a city bus.

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15. Comment #192155 by gyokusai on June 12, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Yeah, rod-the-farmer, I was thinking about education instead of intelligence, too. Referring to "intelligence" in this context reminds me of referring to "nutritional value" or "energy balance."

But I'm not sure that even education would hold up, under scrutiny. You have so many variables here like indoctrination, tradition, group pressure, and what have you, which are all known to be able to persistently override "intelligence" as well as education.

^_^J.

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16. Comment #192158 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on June 12, 2008 at 1:50 pm

A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.
...
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.
...
He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

There are no other factors than IQ. Just like the Bell Curve.

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17. Comment #192162 by mordacious1 on June 12, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Totally anecdotal, but the non-believers I run in to seem to be a cut-above, whereas when when I run into an idiot...

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18. Comment #192166 by Mango on June 12, 2008 at 1:57 pm

comment 17 mordacious1: Totally anecdotal

Have you read his journal article? My university's library doesn't have online access to the latest issue yet so I haven't seen it, but presumably it will contain some statistics that support the argument that The Telegraph reports Lynn makes.

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19. Comment #192167 by notsobad on June 12, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Intelligence and education. Intelligence alone is not enough if you are brainwashed.

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20. Comment #192174 by Dinah on June 12, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Some people are very good at compartmentalising their ideas which enables them to hold beliefs which contradict each other. For example, you can get someone with an entirely rational approach to the world and life in general except when it comes to religion, when they will believe any old hooey. I don't think this is necessarily anything to do with how intelligent they are.

It is more likely (though by no means always the case) that those who have had a scientific education will be less religious because they have been taught to think critically and evaluate evidence. I know someone who is a scientist and claims to believe in God, but she is actually more of a Daniel Dennett 'believer in belief' person, who thinks religion is a Good Thing and a method of spreading values and preventing social breakdown.

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21. Comment #192177 by Goldy on June 12, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Loved this

"Really clever people ?quot; .. Shakespeare .. ?quot; are big enough to believe in God"

Shakespeare's a bad example; he was Elizabethan and, if I recall correctly my school history lessons, the Christians who ran Elizabethan England had declared atheism a capital offence. If Shakespeare had declared himself an atheist, the intelligent, peace-loving Christians (those who believe "thou shall not kill") would have killed him.
Posted by Mike on June 12, 2008 4:09 PM

Talking of the Bard, UoA has this (that's the Uni of Auckland)

Watch, listen to or download this fascinating series of conversations between well-known broadcaster Kerre Woodham and six top academics from the Faculty of Arts. The eclectic range of topics includes New Zealand politics, the sociology of genocide, and whether Shakespeare believed in God

Check it out - http://www.auckland.ac.nz/

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22. Comment #192184 by Lucas on June 12, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Well, that's all very nice, but this guy has proven nothing. It is FAR more complex than he presents it. The religious = stupid, or ignorant, or uneducated argument holds a kernel of truth, but over-simplifying does not help us reach the actual answer. There are lots of correlations and causes, but there has simply not been enough work done to make any conclusions. Gallup polls are almost meaningless to the larger question here.

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23. Comment #192186 by hopeful on June 12, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Another consequence of the PC world we live in is the denial of the obvious, and this is a very sensitive issue because the religious world doesn't want to hear it.

We are talking about a rough correlation not an absolute and simple rule. Sure there are exceptions and probably other factors involved, but it seems obvious that the higher the intelligence and education the less likely to be religious.

Look at what religion is: myths, superstition, dogmatic belief, ritual, lack of scientific understanding and faulty reasoning. By definition, anyone with better reasoning skills and a broader education is going to be less likely to buy into this.

The fact is, that people are afraid to speak out about this, because obviously anyone who is religious is going to get offended, and there are plenty of non-religious people willing to get offended on their behalf.

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24. Comment #192188 by rod-the-farmer on June 12, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Thank dog for cut-&-paste-before-submit, otherwise I would have lost another comment.

Re-reading my own comment, I had another thought. How would/could you test for high IQ in a country which does not educate its own citizens well ? Is it not a premise of IQ testing that the individuals being tested have had some sort of minimal education ? I suspect there is some sort of cultural bias in the test itself, that would discriminate against say, a reindeer herder from Mongolia.

Cringe on.........are there statistics on the IQ in islamic countries where some segments of the population (e.g.....women in Afghanistan) are sometimes denied an education ? And those women who DO receive an education, apparently are not tested on subjects other than the koran. It is probably safe to assume that IQ levels in islamic countries have a "bell curve" similar to those in Japan, China and western countries, But is the peak at the same level ? I mean, if the purpose of islamic education is to recite the koran from memory, does that affect your IQ ?

cringe off

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25. Comment #192189 by Goldy on June 12, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Also depends on the definition of intelligence. I am sure many of the cretinists are very smart - look how they can manipulate data and evidence to show the opposite to what we see as bleeding obvious.
Militant ignorance is not less clever - it is just intelligence going down a dead end ;-)

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26. Comment #192191 by HourglassMemory on June 12, 2008 at 2:30 pm

I think a better choice of words would be "Better thinkers tend to not believe in god".
It's not an arrogant claim.
After all, people who do well in IQ tests are just people who can think about things better than most.

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27. Comment #192199 by Jiten on June 12, 2008 at 2:35 pm

I wonder if any studies have been done to find out what percentage of believers are intelligent?

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28. Comment #192201 by Rawhard Dickins on June 12, 2008 at 2:39 pm

The more "intelligent" you are, the more likely you are to have a well thought out word view. (Which is unlikely to include a bearded old man that waves a magic wand or whatever).

It's not rocket science that poorly educated people tend to be more religious!

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29. Comment #192208 by infidel_michael on June 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm

What I'm missing in such studies is statistics of other beliefs, not just religion. For example astrology, homeopathy, psychics, faith healers, UFO, conspiracy theories, etc.
Then it would be interesting to see the link between religiosity and irrationality in broader context. If religious people are also likely to have other irrational beliefs, then connection between faith and irrationality would be better supported.

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30. Comment #192218 by mordacious1 on June 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Mango

I meant I was being anecdotal, not the article necessarily.

Lucas

I find myself reading your posts with a deep voice. It's the Avatar, and I can't stop myself.

edit: I think believers can be smart or dumb as a rock. If you are a declared atheist, anecdotal again, you are probably at least above average in thinking skills. IMHO

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31. Comment #192219 by alexmzk on June 12, 2008 at 2:57 pm

his conclusion's far too simplistic. if he's looking at academics, then he should take into account that as well as generally higher IQs, other factors come into the equation.

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32. Comment #192228 by Vinelectric on June 12, 2008 at 3:09 pm

The conclusions may be simplistic if applied to the world at large. However, in a single country, where all those confounding factors apply to everyone, then the fact that such an observation is made (higher IQ, less likely religious) must indicate something.

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33. Comment #192231 by Henri Bergson on June 12, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Professor Richard Lynn has also claimed that 'Blacks' (mean IQ 85) are less intelligent than 'whites' (mean IQ 100) who in turn are less intelligent than 'east Asians' (mean IQ 106).

Why then are so many South Koreans Christian?

Excellence of mind includes more than mere IQ, which is nonetheless a factor in that vague concept.

Christians are on average stupid, as are many ethnicities.

The truth is hard and not always compatible with political ideals.

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34. Comment #192241 by Border Collie on June 12, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Like most of you, I have a high IQ. Who cares? God or no God isn't the point to me. My issue, if that's what you want to call it, is with religion as practiced by humans. However, it does seem to me that the smarter a person is the less they swallow "religious" bulls%$t. I would hope so.

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35. Comment #192245 by Lucas on June 12, 2008 at 3:21 pm

mordacious1 - Black Bolt in fact has no voice; or rather, his whisper can shatter worlds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bolt

I've considered changing the avatar to my real face, as Black Bolt looks particularly arrogant in this drawing by Moebius, but I figure we all learn about each other in some oblique way by the avatars we choose. We might learn more by seeing each other's actual faces, but then again maybe not.

As far as the discussion goes, I just think we should all be more careful about writing off religious believers as either crazy or stupid. There are just too many counter-examples. That doesn't mean that ignorance and mental imbalance don't help encourage the acceptance of absurd belief, but there must be something more to it. I've angled my work to try to figure out what this something is, but I don't expect any clear results anytime soon. I once said to my friend something like, "All religion is caused by epileptics, schizophrenics, junkies, and conmen." This was a gross over-simplification, and while I still think it's sort of true, as I was speaking about messiahs and leaders, not followers, I think it ignores the fact that some totally sane, sober, honest people have religious experiences, visions, etc., and they communicate those. Outright derision, and blowing it all off as crazy and stupid, cuts us off from further fruitful inquiry.

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36. Comment #192251 by 7Fred7 on June 12, 2008 at 3:29 pm

This is a perennial one. I wonder how much truth there really is in it. If you ask a scientist "Do you believe in God", I suppose the odds are that they'll answer "No" because they're pretty sure the old guy with a beard doesn't exist; but I wouldn't be at all surprised if many perceive a deeply mystical beauty in the laws of physics and the mathematical constants - and in all of the discovered order underlying the universe - that for them represents something similar to the notion expressed by Einstein and Spinoza. Even if they do, I suspect they would be likely to cautiously avoid applying any "God" word - I imagine that would be unlikely to be picked up in a standard survey.

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37. Comment #192254 by MPhil on June 12, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Brian,

IQ measures 'academic' intelligence, the ability to do science and math.

That's not entirely true... it measure problem-solving capacity (which is one definition of intelligence) via grasp of language, geometry, algebra, "pure" logic, complexity of spatial representation and ability to perform operations in that domain etc... not just math and science.

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38. Comment #192257 by MPhil on June 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm

I won't give you an apology for my being pedantic - you should be used to that by now :)

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39. Comment #192259 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on June 12, 2008 at 3:36 pm

I doubt many people even though their IQs. I know I don't. I've taken a few online tests but these are often biased to be flattering to suborn payment. I was going to suggest an informal poll but how many people have taken a certified test?

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40. Comment #192261 by Lucas on June 12, 2008 at 3:37 pm

7Fred7 - "I imagine that would be unlikely to be picked up in a standard survey. " Absolutely, and that's why standard surveys do us almost no good. I do encourage everyone to do that UCCS thing on the Featured page, though. The more data the better, even if there are flaws in the methodology. Of course, as I've pointed out before, the religious make-up of Colorado Springs is quite interesting. You gotta wonder who these professors actually are. See "Religion and Public Life in the Mountain West: Sacred Landscapes in Transition" by Jan Shipp et al.

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41. Comment #192264 by MPhil on June 12, 2008 at 3:43 pm

Brian,

as soon as I get to it, I will... really busy preparing two talks I have to give next week :)

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42. Comment #192266 by DavidJGrossman on June 12, 2008 at 3:50 pm

"People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study, old studies and common sense."

Fixed it for them.

- Dave

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43. Comment #192269 by Steve Zara on June 12, 2008 at 3:58 pm

I am not sure where to mention this, but I'll do it here. As some have expressed an interest, my long debate with the theologist Bnonn Tennant is over. All the contributions can be reached from here.

I can't thank MPhil enough. It has been a tremendous learning experience (including my recent discovery that the premise of the argument could have been shown to be wrong in two sentences!)

It feels like having completed a short novel.

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44. Comment #192270 by secondsoprano on June 12, 2008 at 4:01 pm

And in other breaking news, a new study has found that grown-ups are less likely to believe in Santa Claus.

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45. Comment #192271 by Cartomancer on June 12, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Atheism good. Work good with people who write clever and knows science an stuff. Religion for dumb folks with rocks in head. Tee hee...

Said a spokesman.

Actually, I think it's a fairly obvious conclusion to draw that greater intelligence, or at least a greater ability to question accepted truths and think things through, would lead to proportionally greater incidence of atheism. What should be stressed however is that this presupposes a modern scientific culture which has actually discovered enough about the universe to show that god, in point of fact, does not exist. Unless one's intellectual abilities enable them to independently formulate the arguments that have come down to us from Hume, Spinoza, Darwin, Einstein, hordes of anthropologists and scholars of comparative religion, Bertrand Russel and many others, it is extremely unlikely that they would reach the conclusion that god does not exist however much independent speculation they engage in. In fact, when theistic explanations were the only explanations in town, independent thought generally had the opposite effect and drew intelligent people to religion. Men like Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Scotus and Ockham were phenomenally intelligent in their own ways (Just reading Scotus makes my head spin), but they lived in a time where nobody had figured out what we know now and the most advanced cosmological texts available were Ptolemy's Almagest and the Timaeus of Plato. Likewise, most of the cognoscenti of late eighteenth century Europe and America were deists. Science is cumulative, that must be borne in mind.

Were I given to speculation, I can well imagine that most or all of these men, had they been born in twentieth century England (on, say, June 13th 1983, to pick a significant date at random from the ether) would have ended up as atheists.

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46. Comment #192272 by DeepFritz on June 12, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Let's take this the other way. Work out ways to make everybody more critical in their thinking and improve the intelligence of the population. Call it a subversive recruitment campaign...

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47. Comment #192273 by acs on June 12, 2008 at 4:11 pm

It would be nice if this was true - I doubt it though.

I think the more likely mechanism at play is an individuals yearning to question. While intelligence may have some impact on the individuals approach to ontology, I have met very many intelligent people that do not have the drive to question what is happening around them.

I would say the link between religiosity and intelligence is indirect for this reason.

Furthermore, I do believe that (a decent) education does instill a greater prospect of becoming a "seeker of the truth". Thus, education may also be linked in this way.

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48. Comment #192275 by youmemeyou on June 12, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Have you heard that more intelligent people are more likely to be atheists? So have I. Lets tell it to someone else, but not forget
cause and effect.

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49. Comment #192276 by Robert Maynard on June 12, 2008 at 4:19 pm

Two things to say:

1) This is an unsurprising result, but I don't like how it's reported for the simple reason that without providing the strict meaning of IQ (and automatically assuming IQ equals "intelligence") many atheists will more than likely misuse it to argue the conclusion in reverse: that being an atheist means you're more intelligent.

2) Richard Lynn is one of those people hounded because his research offended people.. maybe he is too obsessed with IQ and maybe he is a racist because of his fascination with it (I wouldn't presume to know). As others have noted, the important thing is that when you have a grasp of how subtly meaningless IQ can be his conclusions don't really carry that much of a racist sting - they're more like indicators of differences in learning opportunity and style. This implication was further drawn out by his research in "IQ and the wealth of nations". The research doesn't seem to indicate intrinsic racial differences, any more than intrinsic class differences.
It reminds me of that old chestnut that people who drink a glass of wine everyday have a longer life expectancy. What isn't immediately apparent to the smug pricks that tout this argument is that not everyone can afford casual wine drinking every day, and the effect on life expectancy may have a little more to do with the lifestyle that enables that kind of indulgence (*cough* health insurance). :P
There's no indication you would magically extend the lifespan of starving African kids if you airlifted them a glass of red wine every day, for example.

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50. Comment #192284 by mmurray on June 12, 2008 at 4:39 pm

I don't disagree with the basic premise here but I do think the whole idea of IQ is dodgy. There isn't something you can measure called intelligence like you can measure height, pulse rate, blood pressure etc. There are just a bunch of correlations between the number the IQ test measures and the things we usually associate with intelligence.

Stephen J Gould (not usually popular around here :-) ) wrote a great book on this.

Michael

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