Religious believers often accuse atheists of believing that they (Christians) are stupid or that atheists must think that anyone who believes in a god must be stupid. I can’t speak for every atheist because atheism is a lack of belief and not a set of beliefs in and of themselves however, most atheists who are part of the greater community of reason also tend to be Humanists and so I think my opinion here is probably similar to that of most atheists within that community and I don't think religious believers are necessarily stupid at all.
While it is true that there is no shortage of stupid and ignorant religious believers, I certainly don’t think all religious believers must be stupid or that the only way one could believe in such a ridiculous belief system is to be stupid. That obviously isn’t true. There are plenty of really smart religious believers and the name thrown around the most by the religious is Sir. Francis Collins.
Religion is a system of belief. The longer a religion is around, the more the system of belief takes on a life of its own. The system learns and adapts like a virus so the older a religion is the more it has adapted and the better it becomes at spreading its message. Sure it spreads more quickly to the less intelligent or those who simply don’t want to think too much about the deeper questions of existence, but it also spreads to very intelligent people who in any other situation should know better.
Most people for example, are taught about religion early in life by their parents and society before they have the cognitive awareness and skills to question the claims being made. They often learn about God and Jesus before they learn how to spell their name. There are countless religious children’s books designed for that reason. The people who wrote those books aren’t stupid and they aren’t trying to trick kids into religion even though that is exactly what they are doing. They sincerely believe that learning about the Bible, God, and Jesus before a kid can think critically about those things in an objective way is a good thing. They just don’t consider that to be indoctrination but it is exactly that. Society re-enforced those beliefs and further adds to the indoctrination.
In every town in the nation there are churches and usually more than one. At noon, many of those churches ring bells and remind people that they exist. Religion is all around us. You can't escape its presence even if you wanted to (many American like myself do want to). It has become the backdrop of society and so even if someone is not religious, they are still aware of religion and what religion has to say about a wide variety of issues. This sets the stage and again re-enforces the indoctrination.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you are indoctrinated at near birth by people you are biologically conditioned to trust and a society that re-enforces those beliefs. Still, some people come to religion later in life.
Smart people are just like everyone else with the same emotions and life challenges. So when people face a difficult and often emotional situation, religious institutions and leaders come in and remind us of our societal indoctrination. When friends and family die or marry, religious is right there to re-assert itself and take advantage of people’s emotions. Whenever there is a tragedy, before the lawyers get there, there are religious believers on the scene with their holy books looking for converts.
Religion preys on people regardless of their intelligence. But the good news is that while smart people can be religious, smart people can also break away from that indoctrination. All it takes is a willingness to learn and think critically about the world around you. I have found that the smarter the religious believer is, the easier it is for them to take the time and really research religious claims on their own. They can then find their own answers to the questions and when they do, they often realize just how ridiculous religious beliefs can be.
Please check out the Atheism 101 series for frequently asked topics.
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