On Intelligence & Faith

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

This article sites extensive research that shows that, on average, the more intelligent you are the less likely you are to believe in God. There are some problems with the research, at least as it is presented in the article.

First of all, it cites some very old data without even commenting on new data, such as a more recent Pew Poll that found that more scientists believe in God than previously thought . Further, it defines being 'religious' simply by believing in God. For an extensive and important explanation for why this approach to defining 'religious' is off, I suggest Guenter Lewy's spectacular book WHY AMERICAN NEEDS RELIGION. Believing in God does not necessarily make one religious. Being religious is more about pulling one's social circle from a religious community. It also defines intelligence according to IQ score, which as my neuroscientifically minded friend Andy Forceno has told me many times, is a rather poor way to track overall intelligence. Finally, it didn't control for education or class differences. The fact is that it has long been known that the more educated and wealthy you are, the less likely it is that you will be religious.

But let me say that the general thrust of the article is probably correct: it is likely true that more intelligent people do, on average, believe in God less than those who are less intelligent. The article gives several reasons why this might be, the biggest being that intelligence creates material benefits that cause people to live less on the margins of life, and so they need religions less. This, no doubt, is a part of the equation. So on this point, too, the article gets it right.

Let me suggest that there is another, less wholesome reason why intelligence tracks with atheism: being smart tends to make one more full of oneself. One of the central tenets of Christianity is that the central sin is the desire to put the self above God. This impulse, this 'original sin' infects all we do, taking our greatest achievements and coloring them with ego. Intelligence is excellent food for the self-aggrandizing ego. It gives us an illusion of control and what is more, intelligence is power. That power is grand and amazing: the march of science and technology is impressive and this cannot be denied. But the temptation is to think that this power is more than what it is: that we know more than what we know and that we can control more than what we can control. I know this from personal experience: my intellectual arrogance is all but legendary. One of the reasons religion is so important to me is my monumental struggle against this tendency. Humility is born of knowing just how little one really knows, and how paltry is all human power. And the religious spirit seeks humility.

A scientist trusts in the power of his own mind, for good reason. That trust is not unwarranted. But the danger is believing that this trust has no real limits. Believing in oneself quickly falls into believing one is more than what one is. Towing that line is difficult. Deifying the mind may even, in some cases, help one push one's research to greater heights. But it is a poor environment for spiritual growth. Is it any wonder then, that the "less intelligent" (and I use the scare quotes deliberately) who are sometimes far more self-aware than the "more intelligent", aware of their own limits, are more likely to be aware of just how reliant they are on something deeper and broader than themselves? And this brings up another, more fundamental problem with the article: there is a kind of intelligence that can't easily be tested for...moral intelligence and self-awareness. There is a spiritual IQ that may be lacking in those who pass standardized tests, but who hold those of us who only can stand in awe of their deeper brilliance to listen like children at their feet.

Book smarts come relatively easy to me. I can grasp what a text says and remember it with some ease. But humility of spirit, knowing what the right thing to do in any situation, empathy and awe and wonder gleaned from the everyday...I find these far more challenging. I have known people who believed in a 6 day creation who understood some other truths I have only begun to fathom. In the end, I prefer that deeper knowing, it is far more satisfying.