Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
It has gone up from a very low value. It is still pretty low compared to what it used to be from my point of view.
Also as I have read the evidence it is the case that for example the higher eduction the less religiosity. For example
http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/intelligence.html
claim that in the general population in US belief in god is 90% but for scientists with B.S it is 40% and for eminent scientists it is 10%.. |
I doubt it as simple as that. If I remember correctly there is also a higher correlation regarding education and liberal attitudes. And liberal attitudes tend to be more hostile towards religion because of the perception that religion fosters non-liberal attitudes. (And I'm very liberal myself.)
I doubt it is "I'm educated, so I don't believe in God." But I'd have to see those studies in more detail. The general tone of that website would make me suspicious towards its use in any real way.
Harris in his book, "Letter to a Christian Nation," manipulated a number of statistical findings to better make his case. Once you go and look at the data yourself you find that the studies were not saying what he said they did (and it wasn't always easy because his bibliography was crap). The numbers were usually the same but a slight rephrasing of the question can be very important. Harris, I believe, equated asking about the belief in a 'personal god' with the belief in god in general. The two aren't the same thing. I'm not sure I'd say yes to "do you believe in a personal God."
There's a reason Benjamin Disraeli/Mark Twain said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Statistics on the surface mean very little, you have to know a great deal of context and information about the data itself and even then you need to know what to look for that can cause bias in the answers or questions.