Study More educated tend to be more religious, by some measures

[quote=Camjan]I'm not religious, but it may be like how you mentioned because the people's beliefs drive them to work hard so some succeed more than others[/quote]

Yup.
Some of the most beautiful pieces of art have been inspired by religion.
Religion has inspired good and bad things.
I've always wondered though, in a world without religion, would atheism be considered a religion?
Or just a way of thinking?

[quote=Iceshurikan]I agree with @RoboSkill

And I said since I was 9 and I'm 15 now and smarter than a 19 year old

Collage courses ftw[/quote]

Just because you're taking College*** classes, does not mean you are smarter than everyone in your school. I assume you're taking dual-enrollment courses at the local community college. Most of my graduating class also took dual-enrollment courses. Don't automatically assume you're smarter than everyone else.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aumann]Does he count?[/url]

[quote=Caelestys]I don't see how there's any relation between education and spiritual beliefs...the two just don't connect. They're on completely different levels.[/quote]

Honestly that's my opinion as well. My point in posting this wasn't to actually promote religion as more intelligent, but rather to show how the all-too-common dismissal of spiritual people as uneducated is an ignorant viewpoint. Even when trying to use statistics to say that religious people TEND to be less educated, we're seeing that's not true.

So, I'm with you- Catholic, Atheist, Wicca, whatever. Seems like you can mix and match beliefs without having to be smarter or dumber for it.

Exerpt from [i]Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy[/i] by Joel Feinberg:

"Miller: I admit I have no answer.

I'm afraid I do not comfort you, though I have perhaps provided you with some entertainment. Emerson said that a little philosophy turns one away from religion, but that deeper understanding brings one back. I know no one who has thought so long and hard about philosophy as you have. Will it never lead you back to a religious state of mind?

Weirob: My former husband used to say that a little philosophy turns one away from religion, and more philosophy makes one a pain in the neck. Perhaps he was closer to the truth than Emerson."

im religious and that happens to me all the time so yea im not that surprised

[quote=XcoldshadowX]For complainers, know that there is a difference between causation and correlation. The flying spaghetti monster book shows a graph that shows how global warming has increased as the number of pirates has decreased. Does that mean that the lack of pirates is the [b]cause[/b] of global warming? Of course not.

On another note, I don't entirely trust the results of the study. The reader is expected to trust the pro-religion scientists who conducted this study that their information is accurate. I want to know how the GSS collects its data, what data was used, and how that data was used to reach the conclusion reached in the study.[/quote]

You're letting your bias show by making up facts and assumptions to fit the outcome you're shooting for. Dismissing the study as "pro-religious" and not trustworthy without any shred of evidence to support those claims fails to really make your point.

Especially when such a claim is demonstrably false. The GSS isn't a bunch of "pro-religious" scientists. It's a statistical sampling that's been done for 3+ decades, conducted by some quite brilliant sociologists and statisticians from U of Chicago (not exactly known as a religious school). Their credentials are pretty impressive. Considering major businesses use their data (such as IRI, Nielsen, etc...) when determining social trends, I fail to see where you see a big religious conspiracy in their well regarded studies...

Here's some info on how it's used at Berkeley- hardly a religious institution... http://sda.berkeley.edu/archive.htm

The question is, educated in what areas? They could be educated only in the areas of religion.

Also don't forget that there are way WAY more religious people then atheists or agnostics.

Even as a religious person, I have my doubts advocating only one source.

Hmm.

I'm not too surprised, actually.

cant u guys just accept religion?
religion doesnt mean dumb people and atheism doesnt mean smart people
just accept the difference....

[quote=LowWillpower]I've never really thought of belief in religion as a "educated" or "uneducated" situation.

I feel it's more about your perspective on life. Personally, I really started examining my beliefs like 3 or 4 years ago, and it just became apparent to me that I was sitting in a church, listening to a bunch of stuff that just didn't make sense to me. It wasn't about my education or anything, it was just the way I saw the world didn't agree with the way the religion I was part of did.

I think people who assume education has anything to do with it, in either direction, are just people who think too highly of their beliefs without giving the respect they should to the beliefs of others.[/quote]

this gray blob just owned just about everyone, props to you

For complainers, know that there is a difference between causation and correlation. The flying spaghetti monster book shows a graph that shows how global warming has increased as the number of pirates has decreased. Does that mean that the lack of pirates is the [b]cause[/b] of global warming? Of course not.

On another note, I don't entirely trust the results of the study. The reader is expected to trust the pro-religion scientists who conducted this study that their information is accurate. I want to know how the GSS collects its data, what data was used, and how that data was used to reach the conclusion reached in the study.

[quote=Iceshurikan]I'm the smartest person in my school and I've been atheist since I was 9.[/quote]

My god, you're smarter than those numerous teachers with a college degree!
And what does Atheism have to do with it?

I'm Asian, and I hate insects. So that must mean all Asians must hate insects, right?

[quote=FruitPoop]I'm atheist. Does that means that I'm not educated?[/quote]

Not at all. The study simply showed some sort of correlation between education and 'religion' (though it sounds like it was closer to just some belief in some sort of higher power).

It was simply attempting to discredit the belief that some people seem to have that religious people are religious due to a lack of education.

[quote=LowWillpower]God I don't want to have to take stats. My least favorite type of math.
[/quote]

Ok, this is off topic, but I just have to point out that stats is so useful! Next to the most basic of math subjects (basic addition and other operations, basic algebra, etc...) it's arguably the most directly useful math field in the real world.

It's quite possible to go through most of your adult life never needing to bust out your calculus knowledge. But knowing how statistics works is so useful! Just think about Maplestory and all percentage calculations people do when determining scrolling results. =) Politicians use it all the time in the polls they use, businesses uses it every day when making product and marketing decisions, Wall Street uses it to determine likely outcomes and the appropriate prices of bonds, etc...

Now back on topic- I would love that breakdown of which majors are more likely to be religious. I can understand science, literature, philosophy, history, etc... But I couldn't see Statistics really lending itself to opening your mind to religion. But who knows- that's where some good statistical sampling could determine a correlation!

@MrMojoRisin Yes, God can certainly imply creation. Which gets to your point of how is 'religious' defined, since there's a big difference between new-Earth literal bible believers and someone simply 'spiritual'. But perhaps it wasn't even a willing creation, but yet another collapsing of some lager order wave function- much like what we do all the time with our observations without even being aware of it. But yeah, there's no proof anywhere of God, which is why it's "Faith" as opposed to a hard science. I just find it interesting that with something like physics, the deeper your dive, the more mysterious (and unanswerable, at least with current technologies) it can actually become.

[quote=myrdrex]As part of the science community, I can assure you that I've actually observed this seemingly counter-intuitive correlation between extreme scientists and growing religious.

Some of the most religious people I know became more so during their careers at Fermi Lab (for example). Something about studying the fundamental underpinnings of this 11 dimensional universe we live in starts to open you up to the idea that the 4 dimensions we can see might not be telling the whole tale. The idea of a 'higher power' starts to make some sense.

Again, it also fits with this article, because they weren't necessarily diving into some highly organized religion like joining the Catholic church. It was more believing in some flavor of God.

But, as @MenageATrois pointed out (heh, way to slide that name in), there's defiantly a lot of variables at play here. Since it's impossible to gain another year of education without aging approximately 1 year, the age factor seems like a huge variable that could account for a lot of the trend.

However, seeing how my job revolves around statistical samplings, any study and results would surely have taken this obvious variable into account. One easy way is to simply sample people of the same age groups but with different levels of education. Now you've removed age, so you're not comparing an 18 year old with no college to a 60 year old with 2 degrees. You compare 10000 40 year olds, 5000 without college, 5000 with. Stuff like that. And since there's no many factors, you get into multivariate analysis, which is just lovely, but provides a surprisingly accurate picture of the truth.[/quote]
God I don't want to have to take stats. My least favorite type of math.

@Iceshurikan: Based on how you choose to present your "intelligence", I have to say, you don't seem too smart to me. You may get good grades, but man, you talk really ignorantly. Being smarter then "a" 19 year old isn't that amazing, there are some pretty dumb people out there, but assuming you are as smart as a 19 year old is crazy to me. Just the fact that they are 4 years older then you, especially between 15 and 19, gives a lot of experience that is hard to account for when measuring intelligence.

[quote=MrMojoRisin]It says more educated, but it doesn't specify what types of degrees/majors were associated with the increase of these religious people. I doubt many of them were scientists.[/quote]

As part of the science community, I can assure you that I've actually observed this seemingly counter-intuitive correlation between extreme scientists and growing religious.

Some of the most religious people I know became more so during their careers at Fermi Lab (for example). Something about studying the fundamental underpinnings of this 11 dimensional universe we live in starts to open you up to the idea that the 4 dimensions we can see might not be telling the whole tale. The idea of a 'higher power' starts to make some sense.

Again, it also fits with this article, because they weren't necessarily diving into some highly organized religion like joining the Catholic church. It was more believing in some flavor of God.

But, as @MenageATrois pointed out (heh, way to slide that name in), there's defiantly a lot of variables at play here. Since it's impossible to gain another year of education without aging approximately 1 year, the age factor seems like a huge variable that could account for a lot of the trend.

However, seeing how my job revolves around statistical samplings, any study and results would surely have taken this obvious variable into account. One easy way is to simply sample people of the same age groups but with different levels of education. Now you've removed age, so you're not comparing an 18 year old with no college to a 60 year old with 2 degrees. You compare 10000 40 year olds, 5000 without college, 5000 with. Stuff like that. And since there's no many factors, you get into multivariate analysis, which is just lovely, but provides a surprisingly accurate picture of the truth.

[quote=MrMojoRisin]It says more educated, but it doesn't specify what types of degrees/majors were associated with the increase of these religious people. I doubt many of them were scientists.[/quote]
There are a surprising amount of religious people in the scientific community.

That being said, I wonder if they mean people with like a BSc too, cause IMO that's not [i]too[/i] hard to get.

[quote=RoboSkill]That is a bunch of BS. Of course your going to go to church more, your parents are going to make you and you have all that other parties and that Sunday school/CCD (What ever it is) stuff.[/quote]
We are talking people with higher education here, AKA university/college. The people with these types of education would not be going to sunday school, or getting forced to go by parents.

[quote=FLashHunter]I don't think I've seen anybody on basil directly bash somebody's intelligence based off of their religious views O_O[/quote]

Even if it's not a direct "You are stupid" type comment (which is usually deleted by a moderator since that breaks the rules), there's a tons of indirect jabs always being thrown around. (Just look at @Roy8484 's comment above)

Whether it's derisive comments about 'flying spaghetti monsters' or talk about how if they used science or logic they would know there's no God, etc..., there's plenty of inference (if not outright accusations) of the inferiority of people with differing views.

lol, i realise that the dumbest people are those who are religious. and do you know why?
people who are religious don't ask questions because they believe that a book written a few millenniums ago answers everything in life.
those without religious beliefs ask questions and it is only through these questions do we find solutions ultimately improving life.

[quote=Iceshurikan]I'm the smartest person in my school and I've been atheist since I was 9.[/quote]
Highest grades =/= smartest.

Interesting. I've seen articles stating otherwise as well. I wonder how accurate they are.

[quote=FLashHunter]I don't think I've seen anybody on basil directly bash somebody's intelligence based off of their religious views O_O[/quote]
That's surprising.

People bash a lot of things about people here based on religious views. Religion = flamewar on this site. It's pretty funny.

But for the sake of not starting that, there are still enough respectful people here that it doesn't always happen.

I don't think it's so much how educated they are. Perhaps they just researched the subject of a higher power, and many people find it believable.

I've never really thought of belief in religion as a "educated" or "uneducated" situation.

I feel it's more about your perspective on life. Personally, I really started examining my beliefs like 3 or 4 years ago, and it just became apparent to me that I was sitting in a church, listening to a bunch of stuff that just didn't make sense to me. It wasn't about my education or anything, it was just the way I saw the world didn't agree with the way the religion I was part of did.

I think people who assume education has anything to do with it, in either direction, are just people who think too highly of their beliefs without giving the respect they should to the beliefs of others.