A 2017 Pew survey found that belief in God is lower among college-educated individuals than among those having no college. Results of other polls indicate that most scientists, including an overwhelming percentage of those in the National Academy of Sciences, deny the existence of God.
This has led people like Richard Lynn, professor of psychology at the University of Ulster and a self-proclaimed skeptic, to conclude that belief in God is “simply a matter of IQ” – that is, the more intelligent you are, the less likely you will be inclined to religious belief.
Of course, that all depends on what one means by intelligence. Indeed, as a friend of mine once quipped: “Can a person who flunks the test to the most basic question in life (“Is there a God?”) be considered intelligent?” That’s because everything we “know” about the world, human nature, ethics and the meaning of life hangs on what we believe about their origin.
Perhaps the most comprehensive definition of “intelligence” is found in “Mainstream Science on Intelligence.”
“Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings – ‘catching on,’ ‘making sense’ of things or ‘figuring out’ what to do.”