Are Christians Dumber than Atheists?

I suppose the idea that Christians are less intelligent than atheists goes back to at least the Enlightenment, especially during the 18th century. Then in 1844 Karl Marx famously wrote, “Religion is the opium of the people.” In other words, religion was supposedly a form of pain relief for poor, uneducated people who didn’t know any better; it distracted them from their misery and offered them false hope for a better life after death.

In the 20th century and on into this one, there have been some research studies that at least seem to indicate a correlation between atheism and higher intelligence. However, when one examines the data more carefully, a more nuanced picture emerges. Very special thanks to Natasha Crain, author, speaker, and podcaster, for a careful scrutiny of the data from some of these studies.

There is a well-known research study of 137 nations on sciencedirect.com (2008) by Richard Lynn, John Harvey, and Helmuth Nyborg. This study showed that the higher the average national intelligence, the higher the percentage of atheists in a given country. In her book Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side, Natasha Crain questions the validity of this study. She points out, for example, that there were low response rates from people in the 137 countries, as well as the fact that there were cross-cultural problems defining words like “religious” and “secular.” To their credit, the researchers acknowledged these weaknesses. Even more significantly, from my point of view, Crain’s analysis found that the relationship between national intelligence and atheism was primarily limited to countries with a national IQ between 85 and 95; there were only 38 countries that fell into that category; that is only a little over a quarter. In the 63 countries with an IQ of less than 85, as well as the 36 countries with an IQ of more than 95, there was no relationship at all between intelligence and atheism. Another interesting fact is that of the 38 countries that showed a relationship, they were predominantly in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America. Among other things, this means that in North America, Europe, and Africa, there was no statistically significant relationship found between intelligence and atheism. And it bears repeating: in almost three quarters of the nations studied overall, there was no significant relationship between intelligence and atheism.

In 2013, Zuckerman, Silberman, and Hall analyzed 63 different research studies to see if there was a significant relationship between intelligence and “religiousness.” 35 showed the more intelligent a person was, the less likely they were to be “religious;” 2 showed the more intelligent a person was, the more likely they were to be “religious;” 26 showed no significant relationship. In other words, only about half showed a significant relationship. And again, a closer analysis is very revealing:

• Who: a variety of ages and educational levels were represented in the studies
• How many: the number of people studied varied from only 20 to 14,000+
• When: 1928-2012
• What: some studies measured religious behavior; some measured religious beliefs
• How: different tests were used in different countries to measure intelligence

In statistics, there is something called reliability, which is concerned with trying to replicate as closely as possible the methodology of other studies–and getting the same results!–so that comparisons can be made across studies and conclusions can be strengthened. It’s obvious from the above analysis, however, that trying to compare these 63 studies is like comparing apples to oranges. In other words, trying to draw valid conclusions using a large number of studies about the relationship between intelligence and “religiousness” is fraught with difficulty.

However, in regard to these 63 studies, there were 2 factors that Zuckerman, Silberman, and Hall found to be slightly significant in terms of the relationship between intelligence and “religiousness:” life stage (precollege, college, or noncollege) and measure of religiousness (behavior or belief). Three key findings:

• Religious behavior (e.g. church membership) has almost no relationship with intelligence at any life stage.
• Religious belief has almost no relationship with intelligence in the precollege years.
• Religious belief has a weak relationship with intelligence for college and noncollege adults; the higher the intelligence, the less likely a person is to have religious beliefs–but that relationship is very small.

Putting it all together, the idea that atheists are smarter than Christians (and other people with religious behaviors and beliefs) has very little basis in fact when a closer, more nuanced, analysis of data is done. Atheists can sound very convincing at times with their naturalistic worldview; however, Christians can also sound very convincing when equipped with the Bible and a Christian worldview.

I understand that not every Christian is going to be able to give all of the right answers, but we can equip ourselves to give at least some of them. If we just say, “Because the Bible says so,” that is not going to convince anyone, especially if we don’t even know what the Bible actually says about a given issue. My wife has a friend who was talking to her sister about abortion; they have opposing views. When the sister asked, “Why do you say that abortion is wrong?” the response of my wife’s friend was, you guessed it, “Because the Bible says so!” I find Psalm 139:13 to be a wonderful verse: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” If this college-educated friend were at least able to talk to her sister about the beauty of this word picture, I think it would be a start. In other words, yes, the Bible says so, but what exactly does it say? At the same time, I know that there are Christians who have a very simple (but strong) faith and will never be able to give some of the answers that people are seeking. My mentally-handicapped sister (now in heaven) was one of them.

May we who are Christians be increasingly willing to follow the words of 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” And if you are not a Christian, I hope that you will investigate the claims of Christianity further.