On Half Sigma, David Alexander made the following observation:
It seems ironic that the people who should be thanking god for their high IQ are the same people who don’t believe in IQ while those who were “cheated” by by God are the most religious.
It is indeed ironic that those that have the most to thank a god for are the least religious while those upon whom God has bestowed less intellectual and material grace tend to be more religious. There are a couple of explanations for that. Some atheists believe that God is merely a stopgap for things that people don’t understand and less intelligent people understand less than more intelligent people. Some more crudely believe that religion is just dumb so dumb people are more religious.
Religious people and those inclined towards religion may surmise that the wealthier are more likely to be spoiled and believe that they do not need God’s grace, making it mostly a matter of hubris.
It reminds me a bit of something that I noticed in Deseret: far and away most of the outwardly religious people I knew out there were female. Mostly Mormons, of course, but even those of other faiths. I noticed the same in Delosa when it came to Catholics and even at my staid Episcopal Church, the social adhesive was predominantly female. This is hardly a unique observation as most statistics have shown women to be more religious than men and one fellow even wrote a book about it, which I’ll comment on in a bit.
I find this notable because historically speaking, organized religion has been less than entirely generous to women. Both the Catholic and Mormon churches reserve their highest posts for men to this day. If religions are institutions of control, it seems to me that they spend more time trying to control women than men.
And yet women are on the whole more religious than men. They are more likely to believe in God, more likely to go to church, and more likely to want to raise their children to be religious. Murrow in the aforementioned book believes that this is because the social setting of church has become more geared towards women than men in much the same way that some believe that our public schools have become “feminized”. There may be some truth to this, though I never saw that at my church (which, might I add, is among the more hospitable to women and in the largest denomination to be lead by a woman).
I think there are more obvious culprits. For instance, women are raised to be more right and proper than men and part of that entails going to church. Either because it is demanded of them or they’re just naturally inclined to, women seem to more often be conformists in general. For better or worse they’re also more social; nearly every high school social club was dominated by women. As any woman that’s been lost with a man and in need of directions will tell you, men are also less inclined to believe that they need help.
So there are plenty of reasons why women are on the whole more religious than men, but I nonetheless find it an interesting phenomenon.
Interestingly, to me, in the Truman household the husband is the more religious of the two, attends church more often (which isn’t saying much), and is going to be the one tugging for the kids to be raised in a more religious environment.
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I think the “social” aspect of churchgoing/religion is more in play than the conformist one, but far be it for me to make sweeping generalizations.
I find, generally speaking, that many people who identify as “religious” in some way do so uncritically, which is to say, they’re [whatever denomination], may not know/care why that is, and that’s that. Refer to the episode of King of the Hill when Bobby thinks he’s Buddhist, and Hank hits the ceiling. Hank takes Bobby to meet with their pastor in response to Bobby asking “but why DO we go to church, Dad?” The answer he gets from the pastor: “Methodism is the rejection of Calvinism.” “There, Bobby, now do you understand why we go to church?”
If religions are institutions of control, it seems to me that they spend more time trying to control women than men.
Where do you think those men are birthed from? 😉
I think the “social” aspect of churchgoing/religion is more in play than the conformist one, but far be it for me to make sweeping generalizations.
We’re obviously not concerned about sweeping generalizations in these here parts. You may be right, I’ve just noticed that the pressure to conform seems to be greater on women. Guys can carve out a respectable niche as the lone wolf which doesn’t have a counterpart for women.
I find, generally speaking, that many people who identify as “religious” in some way do so uncritically, which is to say, they’re [whatever denomination], may not know/care why that is, and that’s that.
Though I don’t know that I’d call myself religious, I probably fall into that category to some extent. I am an Episcopalian because I was raised thus. If I looked in my heart and found that my beliefs were closer to Catholicism, Calvinism, or whatever I’d surely convert. Also, if I were raised in a faith that my views were completely incompatible with I would more than likely officially defect. But as luck would have it I was raised in a church that allows a wide berth of theological thought and one that to some degree it’s pointless to defect from. Part of me thinks that it’s fortunate, but part of me knows that my view of the role of a church in society was at least partly informed by my upbringing leaving me comfortable with some kinds of worship (low-key, lithurgical) than others (jumping gospel praise).
Then again, believers and nonbelievers alike don’t entirely understand my view of God and religion and some (on both sides of the divide) would be disgusted by it.
Simple explanation is that Men have higher IQs so are less religious.
http://www.livescience.com/health/060908_brainy_men.html
Female domination of most black Christian churches has contributed to the growth of the Black Muslims. Men often see joining them as a way of having their “own” religious organization.
Genuine Muslims or Nation of Islam Muslims? Interesting either way, though I can definitely see how the latter would appeal disproportionately to men.
Mostly NOI, as far as I know.