Ulster
Institute for Social Research, 2014
Notes from an article in the Church Times,
30 May 2014
His work
combined findings from a number of independent studies (meta-analysis) which
show a weak but significant negative correlation between ‘religiousness’ and
‘intelligence’. Atheists have higher IQs than liberal religious, who have
higher IQs than conservative religious. Religious people also score lower on
proxies for intelligence (e.g. being highly educated). Fervent advocacy of
any ideology (religion, Marxism, multi-culturism, conservative nationalism) is
associated with low intelligence.
Intelligence
is defined as the ability to solve problems quickly. It is linked to levels of
education, socio-economic status, salary, health, criminality (negatively) and future
orientation, amongst others. It is measured by IQ tests, which are not
culturally biased.
Religiousness
is c. 44% genetic, while religious conversion is c. 65% genetic. In people with pronounced
personality traits (which are c. 50% genetic), these can overwhelm their
intelligence. Religious academics and unintelligent atheists both arise from
personality overwhelming intelligence.
There are
five main personality characteristics: (1) Extra-version: experiencing positive
feelings strongly; (2) Neuroticism: experiencing negative feelings strongly;
(3) Conscientiousness: impulse control; (4) Agreeableness: altruism and (5)
Openness-intellect: intellectual curiosity, creativity, hypnotisability,
unusual psychological experiences. These have important implications. Very high
extraversion predicts obesity and alcoholism, while very high neuroticism is
linked with depression.
ED found religiousness weakly related to being agreeable or conscientious.
Neuroticism is linked with periodic bouts of religious fervour or unusual
religiosity. Openness and neuroticism are linked with both educational success
and temporary religiousness, and likely to be set off by factors such as
uncertainty and social exclusion (e.g. at top universities, far from home and
under pressure to succeed). Post-graduates are generally less religious than
undergraduates, PhD students less religious still. The most successful
academics (e.g. Nobel Prize winners) were least religious of all.
ED found that
compared with the general population, academics are agreeable, conscientious,
open, neurotic and intelligent. Highly original thinkers have very high
openness-intellect and neuroticism and relatively low agreeableness and
conscientiousness, so less likely to care if new ideas offend and more likely
to reject orthodox ways of doing things (offices tend to be chaotic, dress
sense embarrassing, difficult to live with). The aggression of some atheists
suggest ideological fervour is linked with low agreeableness and
conscientiousness, high neuroticism and low intelligence; in comparison with
Christians they would have similar IQs but be nasty, have poor emotional
control and be mentally unstable.
Christians
are likely to have very high agreeableness, conscientiousness and, perhaps,
openness and neuroticism. They are likely to make better friends and partners
than non-religious people when intelligence is taken into account. It is
possible that religiousness (c. 44% genetic) was selected for in pre-history
because people liked the characteristics associated with it.
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Could this theory explain why:
(a) Roman Catholicism and Islam are strongest in poor communities with little education.
(b) Countries with higher levels of education are the least religious
Source: Church Times, 30 May 2014
