For some time, the prevailing view among secularists has been that religion is the result of anti-intellectualism, lack of education, or both. This has only been heightened in recent years with the publication of books such as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, where religious belief is openly compared to a mental disorder. Religion, being the obvious result of ignorance, must be innoculated with proper education. Education is truth, and the truth will set you free.
Unless, of course, you actually look at the research.
According to a recent study presented by the American Sociological Association, the data simply doesn’t support the secular anti-religious bias. In fact, the data gathered from the General Social Survey – generally regarded as the “gold standard” of national sociological information, gathered biannually since 1972 – reports the opposite trend. The higher the achieved level of education, the more likely people are to be religious.
There are some caveats to this, however. Higher educated people are less likely to be Biblical literalists, or religious fundamentalists, for example. In other words, as I see it, the educationally elite are not merely more likely to be religious, they are more likely to be religiously healthy. They are better prepared to wrestle with deeper religious concepts, and capable of digging beneath surface-level Biblical readings to arrive at more meaningful (and more accurate, I would argue) Scriptural interpretations. Furthermore, higher education provides the research tools to look beyond simplistic explanations, allowing people the skills to better comprehend passages of Scripture which, at first, appear contradictory. This also explains why the tendency towards abandoning the faith occur with greater prevalence among the lesser educated – again, a trend revealed by the study which counters the long-standing bias presented by evangelists of atheism.
The study is scheduled to be published in an upcoming journal edition of Review of Religious Research. In the meantime, CNN’s belief blog does a great job at covering the research as it was presented in August.
Check out that blog here.
What do you think? Have you encountered the perspective that religion is a consequence of educational ignorance?
Related articles
- Weird Science: Is Religion The Antithesis Of Reason? (ofdustandkings.com)
- Atheism and Universal Ethics (ofdustandkings.com)
- News In Bible Scholarship: The Oldest New Testament Manuscript Ever Found? (ofdustandkings.com)
Andrea G. March 19, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Interesting. Judging by my experiences, we definitely had a lower percentage population of people who’d describe themselves as traditionally religious (Certainly who would describe themselves, for example, as “Christian”) at UF undergrad than in the general population. Now in law school, I’d say it’s significantly even less. I definitely see some of what the article is saying with people who describe themselves as “religious” or “believing in a higher power” without necessarily calling themselves Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Whatever or attending any sort of service. I’d say that in my class of 150, we probably have 40 or so people who I think would refer to themselves as “Religious”, including people who refer to themselves as religious without necessarily believing in any one higher power. Coming from the bible belt, that certainly is a leap down from the general population I’m used to…
Also, the article seems to be counting as “religious” people who don’t think that there is any one right answer/ any one God, etc. I think that in higher ed we for sure have a lot of that, but if you asked a group of “traditional” churchgoers if that qualified as being actually religious, I think a lot of people would say no. So based on my experiences at least, I’m still firmly in the camp that higher education leads to a lot more questioning, and a lot more abandoning, of religious beliefs. However, I do think that it leads to a significant increase in being more carefree and accepting of other people’s beliefs.
T. E. Hanna March 19, 2012 at 10:11 pm
The study actually identified a less literal reading of scripture, but also a higher degree of those regularly reading Scripture, identifying a higher power, regularly attending church services and becoming part of a faith community. I agree that education leads one to question more, but it also provides the tools to better seek out answers to those questions, which often leads to a deeper, more vibrant faith.
T. E. Hanna March 19, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Let me caveat my earlier response… we DO have statistics which demonstrate that, during college, students tend to depart from the church, but we also have statistics which show their later return. The census data which formed the basis for the study cited in the article included a wide age range, so that would also include graduates who have returned to the church, or sought out their faith for the first time.
Beatriz May 1, 2012 at 5:31 pm
1 Cor 1:20, 26, 27; 3:19: Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?… For consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame those who are wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the things that are strong, … For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, “He grasps the wise in their craftiness”;
According to this, I really don’t care what others think. In Mtt 11:25 we read that the Father have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
Thank You Lord, to be part of the “infants” that know You and Your will. Thank You because You are my all. Without You I am nothing and can do nothing.