"One of these facts is the negative correlation between education and religion, and also between intelligence and religion. For college graduates, 52% are religious and 25% are committed to church attendance, while the percentages are 70% and 33% for people who only completed primary school. These differences are also proven by the 1991 General Social Survey. A great number of surveys have also shown the negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity ("The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith", Free Inquiry, Spring 1986). Therefore, we may surmise that, as the general level of education will rise, the less theism will take hold.
Another of these facts is how our youths are raised. According to the survey, the young, middle-aged and elderly are religious at respectively 59%, 56% and 63%. More data would be necessary to analyze this trend, but if this is a generational phenomenon, then there is hope that average religiosity will decline with time.
In the final analysis, one particular comment by the ignorant writer of the report is perhaps the most revealing. She is concerned that religiosity is being considered less important than 'the impact of new technologies, scientific developments such as human cloning and economic theory that seems to assert the deification of the market'. Yet it would be shameful if we forsook all these great hopes for mankind in exchange for old superstitions."
www.secularhumanism.org/fi
Paraphrased and summarized from The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith,
Burnham P. Beckwith, _Free Inquiry_, Spring 1986:
1. Thomas Howells, 1927
Study of 461 students showed religiously conservative students "are,
in general, relatively inferior in intellectual ability."
2. Hilding Carlsojn, 1933
Study of 215 students showed that "there is a tendency for the more
intelligent undergraduate to be sympathetic toward ... atheism."
3. Abraham Franzblau, 1934
Confirming Howells and Carlson, tested 354 Jewish children, 10-16.
Negative correlation between religiosity and Terman intelligence test.
4. Thomas Symington, 1935
Tested 400 young people in colleges and church groups. He reported,
"there is a constant positive relation in all the groups between
liberal religious thinking and mental ability...There is also a
constant positive relation between liberal scores and intelligence..."
5. Vernon Jones, 1938
Tested 381 students, concluding "a slight tendency for intelligence
and liberal attitudes to go together."
6. A. R. Gilliland, 1940
At variance with all other studies, found "little or no relationship
between intelligence and attitude toward god."
7. Donald Gragg, 1942
Reported an inverse correlation between 100 ACE freshman test scores
and Thurstone "reality of god" scores.
8. Brown and Love, 1951
At U. of Denver, tested 613 male and female students. Mean test scores
"Changes in the educational levels of the general population in recent years
appear to account for much of the variance in biblical beliefs over time.
The current proportion of biblical literalists is 32%, only half of what it
was in 1963, when 65% of Americans said they believed in the absolute truth
of all words in the Bible and that it represented the actual word of God.
Belief in inerrancy is most likely to be found among people who did not
complete high school (58%), and least likely among college graduates (29%)."
[One Nation Under God, (1993) Barry A. Kosmin
& Seymour P. Lachman. pg. 268]
"Two recent surveys rate the United States at the top among Western nations
in belief in God and at the bottom among six major countries in school kids'
understanding of science and math. This could be dismissed as chance, but it
shouldn't be.
[Bill Mandel, San Francisco Examiner, 12 February 1989]
One of these facts is the negative correlation between education and religion, and also between intelligence and religion. For college graduates, 52% are religious and 25% are committed to church attendance, while the percentages are 70% and 33% for people who only completed primary school. These differences are also proven by the 1991 General Social Survey. A great number of surveys have also shown the negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity ("The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith", Free Inquiry, Spring 1986). Therefore, we may surmise that, as the general level of education will rise, the less theism will take hold.