Are you too smart for church?

Religious Uptake According to Education Types and Levels (June 1, 2023)

As you can imagine, measuring group intelligence is very difficult and would be an endeavour that few would find common ground upon.  Accordingly, most analysis of this kind falls back on levels of education.

A U.S. Gallup poll in 20021 asked: is religion very important in life?  The 65% of the respondents who agreed to this statement had high school or less; people with some college scored 60%; college graduates scored 52%; and postgraduates scored 53%.  Meanwhile, the span for those who believed in God or a universal spirit ranged from 97% for high-schoolers to 88% for post-grads.  Higher education does appear to reduce the embracing of religion, but these spans of 12 percentage points and 9 percentage points respectively are not as great as I would have expected.

This begs the question: which subject areas of education reduce religious belief the most?  There is not a lot of data on this that I could locate, but I came across a study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research4 that resulted in data indicating how religious belief is predicted to change over six years of study for different college majors.  It found that religious importance was increased by business, vocational/clerical, education, and other studies (in order of least to most affected).  Religious importance was decreased by studies in biology, engineering, physical science/math, humanities and social science (in order of least to most affected).

Unsurprising, the sciences fall squarely in the group that decrease religious belief.  A U.S. Pew Research Center survey2 of scientists in May and June 2009 was also illuminating.  Whereas 95% of the American public believe in God or a universal spirit, only 51% of scientists say the same.  Four separate scientific fields were studied, resulting in belief by 51% for biological and medical, 55% for chemistry, 50% for geosciences, and 45% for physics and astronomy.  

If I were to hazard a guess as to why scientists differ from the general population so much, I would put it down to belief in the scientific method.  The scientific method is commonly codified as follows:

1. Make an observation.

2. Ask a question.

3. Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.

4. Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.

5. Test the prediction.

As you can imagine, forming a testable explanation and testing a prediction are not processes amenable to religion.  It usually comes down to religious faith which, by definition, is untestable.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides the sub-definition “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”  

Whereas science’s effect on religious belief is readily understandable, the greater effect of studies in humanities and social sciences is more puzzling.  I would hazard a guess that it stems from their in-depth study of religions and their effects on history and society over the long run.  Studying how religions differ, battle each other, and create religious institutions with dubious behaviour may be disconcerting for many students.  Whereas science may result in negative beliefs based on lack of proof, the humanities possibly result in ambiguous belief, but also in doubts as to its value to society.  

So, does this mean that religious people have lower education levels?  Pew Research Center data3 indicates that in America 26% of Roman Catholics, 33% of mainline protestants, and 21% of evangelical protestant have college and/or post-graduate degrees, coming to a weighted average of 26%.  For respondents who claim to be religiously ‘unaffiliated’, the rate was 29%.  There is a variance, but it is not overly significant.

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1. Gallup, Does More Educated Really = Less Religious?, https://news.gallup.com/poll/7729/does-more-educated-really-less-religious.aspx

2.  Pew Research Center, Scientists and Belief, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/

3. Pew Research Center, Educational distribution, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/educational-distribution/

4.  University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Study shows how college major and religious faith affect each other, https://phys.org/news/2009-07-college-major-religious-faith-affect.html