The debate on religiosity and intelligence explores the link between religiosity and issues related to intelligence and educational level. Debates over religiosity may consider religious belief and/or practice, and may compare to atheism or to lack of religious affiliation or to lack of religious practice.
Intelligence is a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. Religiosity refers to degrees of religious behaviour, belief, or spirituality.
In a 2013 meta-analysis, led by Professor Miron Zuckerman, of 63 scientific studies about IQ and religiosity, a negative relation between intelligence and religiosity was found in 53.
Intelligent people are generally more analytical and data-driven; formal religions are the antithesis: they are empirically fluffy.
Intelligent people are less likely to conform, and, in most societies,religiosity is closer to the norm than atheism is. Although this interpretation is based on extrapolation, it still makes sense: first, smarter people tend to be less gullible.
In conclusion Humans will always crave meaning. Religion – like science and logical reasoning – provides them with a comprehensive framework or system to make meaningful interpretations of the world. At times, religion and science are in conflict; but they can also act in concert, complementing each other to answer non-falsifiable and falsifiable questions, respectively.
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