PEOPLE with high IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.
A leading psychology professor at Ulster University said many more “intellectually elite” people in the UK, especially univeristy academics, identified themselves as atheists than the national average.
Prof Richard Lynn said a decline in religious beliefs over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, the Telegraph reported.
The study, published in the academic journal Intelligence, has been called “simplistic” by critics.
A survey of Royal Society fellows, the independent academy of science in the UK, found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God, the Telegraph reported.
Personally, I don’t believe in god, but I’ve never really thought less of the intelligence of those who do. I’ve always felt that it was a very personal decision. Some people need or want the comfort and pleasure that organized religion can provide. Others don’t.
I have a hard time believing that decision has anything to do with intelligence.