The Better Intelligence-Religion Correlation

[David Sklansky]

Since most smart people believe in God, it is a stretch to make too much of the fact that more smart people than dumb people disbelieve.

But there is a different idea that I am sure the vast majority of smart people DO disbelieve. Namely the idea that the truth of their own beliefs is SELF EVIDENT, once the appropriate literature is studied.

I have brought up this issue before but it seems to get lost in other issues. The thing about most religions that cause the most problems, occurs because practitioners think not only that their religion is true, but that it is unreasonable to think otherwise. Without this unreasonable aspect they could not excuse some of their behavior.

If disbelief is not unreasonable they cannot ascribe to unbelievers, evilness, laziness, or ulterior motives. But if unbelieving atheists or members of other religions are in fact lazy, evil, selfish, or have ulterior motives, then it is OK for them to try to impose their position on these unbelievers and for God to send them to hell.

There are some religions that don't state that their beliefs are so self evident that unbelievers must have something wrong with them. I think they are in the minority. But there are also, I think, many members of all religions, who in spite of being a member of a specific religion, fully accept the idea that non members are not automatically unreasonable. Let's call those people Enlightened Theists.

It is my contention that the more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to be either an atheist or an Enlightened Theist. And that above a certain level of intelligence, the great majority of people are one of the two. And if I'm right, that IS strong evidence for the truth of something (that something being that no religion can lay claim to being logically self evident.)