The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity

[Zzyzx]

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The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity

A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity. [If anyone needs this simplified it means that there is a correlation between LOW intelligence and religiosity -- or the converse, high intelligence correlates with low religiosity.]

1. Intelligent people are less likely to conform and, thus, are more likely to resist religious dogma.

2. Intelligent people tend to adopt an analytic (as opposed to intuitive) thinking style, which has been shown to undermine religious beliefs.

3. Several functions of religiosity, including compensatory control, self-regulation, self-enhancement, and secure attachment, are also conferred by intelligence. Intelligent people may therefore have less need for religious beliefs and practices.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10. ... lCode=psra&

HOWEVER: Studies also indicate that in technologically advanced societies intelligent people tend to produce fewer children.

Before the Industrial Revolution, parish records show that it used to be the richer, more intelligent people survived and had more children. As a result, society became more and more intelligent, up until the point of the widespread innovation of the Industrial Revolution.
http://www.newsweek.com/atheism-intelli ... ion-610982

In other words, studies indicate that intelligence was genetically favored when it provided an advantage in survival and reproduction BUT once society incorporated advancements that allowed people of ANY intelligence (low, high, average) to survive and reproduce, intelligence worked AGAINST reproduction (when / if more intelligent people have fewer children).

Thus, if conditions permit lower intelligence people to survive as well as higher intelligence people, the less intelligent tend to out-reproduce higher intelligence people -- to become more numerous / higher percentage in the population.

AND religiosity should INCREASE.

Questions for debate:

Is there any dispute of 1 - 3 above (in general / average -- not every individual)?

Does the reproduction factor favor low intelligence and/or religiosity?

Will the 'pendulum swing' in favor of religion in societies where survival is more-or-less assured?

[Kenisaw]

[Replying to post 1 by Zzyzx]

Fascinating OP.

I think the studies are correct in identifying the trends that I have noticed in the West regarding religion, especially when technology is factored in. There is also no doubt that both wealthier and more intelligent groups tend to have fewer kids. So we should eventually see religion start to rise again in the general population.

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 1 by Zzyzx]

Fascinating OP.

I think the studies are correct in identifying the trends that I have noticed in the West regarding religion, especially when technology is factored in. There is also no doubt that both wealthier and more intelligent groups tend to have fewer kids. So we should eventually see religion start to rise again in the general population.

It seems to be a survival method for religions to have its followers reproduce to make more of said believers.

With that said, it is no surprise that the god of the Bible has ordered its followers to reproduce and fill the world.

You don't make believers by using reason and logic or by providing evidence, birthing them or scaring them into belief seem to be the best ways for a religion to stay relevant.

[DrNoGods]

[Replying to post 1 by Zzyzx]

Thus, if conditions permit lower intelligence people to survive as well as higher intelligence people, the less intelligent tend to out-reproduce higher intelligence people -- to become more numerous / higher percentage in the population.

AND religiosity should INCREASE.

I'd agree with the 3 points, but has it been shown that less intelligent people produce less intelligent children? I've read that genes are responsible for typically about half of intelligence (mostly inherited from the mother), with the other half being environmental. So if people (intelligent or not) produce children with a 50/50 chance of being intelligent, then it would impact the conclusion that religiosity should increase if low intelligent people have more children. Of course, if 50% being environmental is a good number, and less intelligent people tend to provide an environment that favors this 50% being in the low intelligence category, then the conclusion would be correct.

I don't have any real knowledge of this myself ... just pointing out that the conclusion that religiosity should increase depends on a situation where more than 50% of the offspring of low intelligence people are also low intelligence, and this may or may not be the case.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ereditary/

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/intelligence

[Neatras]

[Replying to post 4 by DrNoGods]

You do have a sharp eye, trying to figure out what proportion of the study is affected by hereditary intelligence. But there's a pitfall people manage to slip into when taking these discussions at face value. They take these studies to be observations about evolutionary biology, when really it's about demographics. And demographics can take into account heredity and socioeconomic factors.

If a family is impoverished, and can afford only substandard education, the current state of many advanced countries (one example may be the US) prevents a great deal of social mobility, preventing many kids from receiving better education than what their circumstances allow. Since families in lower income brackets tend to have more kids, they are effectively condemning those kids to substandard education.

Intellect is a nebulous concept that only really becomes distinguished when it's allowed to flourish. So even if someone has good heredity, the inability to sharpen or utilize their intellect can leave them being unaccounted for by these studies.

But religion is something which doesn't rely on intelligence or academics in order to proliferate through the population. It's primarily a social convention and utilizes well-honed techniques to maintain its relevance. Especially since the most useful method to pass on religion is to raise children specifically to be transmitters of the religious memes.

[DrNoGods]

[Replying to post 5 by Neatras]

And demographics can take into account heredity and socioeconomic factors.

Agree 100%, and that is what I was trying to address with the statement about less intelligent people providing an environment (presumably not by choice but by circumstance) that favors more of the distribution of their offspring falling into the lower intelligence category. If the group "less intelligent" ... wherever that line is drawn on an intelligence scale ... tend to be lower income and have less access to educational resources then their offspring would be expected to also land in the same part of the distribution that their parents are a member of.

Another useful stat, which I'm sure has been studied but I just am not familiar with the results, is what percentage of children adopt the religious beliefs of their parents. This must be a very high number based simply on the geographical distribution of religions, and I would think this may dominate any intelligence related component.