God and the gifted mind

I’ve always thought that less-intelligent or less-educated folks were more likely to fall prey to religions and religiosity. Without any research to support that assumption, I can see quite a few good reasons for that.

First, religious belief is not what you would call "rational". It could be that people who are more logical or analytical are less likely to go for the empirical knowledge, the stuff of legend, hearsay, or traditions that are the markers of religious life.

The more educated crowd trusts science more, and tends to resist spiritual explanations to life and its phenomenons. Further, educated societies are often less likely to fall prey to conformity as they don’t want to be regimented, are more independent and less gullible.

Yet, paradoxically they are not in the majority, since they’re often outnumbered by superstitious or religious people, giving religious groups a much greater visibility and influence. It’s also true that religiosity and intelligence often fulfill the same psychological role of “interpreting” the nature and its mysteries.

Clearly, humans crave meaning for their environment, history and destiny, and are using religion and science to provide them with answers. Some scholars claim that one’s IQ can predict whether an individual is in the former or latter group, suggesting that the level of IQ will influence religiosity rather than the other way around.

This relationship between IQ and religiosity may also be influenced by open-mindedness to experiencing new things, a personality traits that calls for higher levels of intellectual curiosity and openness. Likewise, an anti-conformist attitude also seems correlated with a higher IQ.

On the other hand, a lower IQ and poor or lacking level of education, might be more likely to bring individuals into the fold of religious belief. At least that's what I believe…