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Is religion just for the uneducated because many scientists and philosophers are atheists? In this video, I challenge that assumption by examining what the data really shows, why expertise matters, and how some of the greatest intellectual minds—past and present—have seen faith and reason as allies, not enemies.
TRANSCRIPT:
Is religion just for the ignorant? For many people who don’t believe God exists, this is one reason why: the smart people they know and respect, such as scientists and philosophers, are often atheists. And this seems to suggest that religion is just for people who don’t know any better. But is it true that most smart people, like scientist and philosophers, don’t believe God exists? And even if a lot of intellectuals don’t believe in God, does that mean religion should just be dismissed?
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So, let’s kick things off with this question: If most intelligent people you know believed something, would you believe it?
Many unbelievers don’t think God exists because they’re convinced most intelligent people—like scientists and philosophers—are atheists, thereby making religious belief something for the uneducated. But is this true? And does it even matter what the intellectual elite among scientists and philosophers believe?
These are legit questions. So let’s take a closer look and see where reason takes us.
It is true that a lot of the smart people we hear about today, especially in science and philosophy, are atheists. For example, a 1998 study in the journal Nature called “Leading Scientists Still Reject God” found that 93% of members of the National Academy of Sciences—one of the top science organizations in the U.S.—don’t believe in God. And a study from PhilPapers Survey showed that 73% of professional philosophers are atheists.
So with numbers like that, it’s easy to feel like, Well, if all these brilliant people are rejecting God, maybe I should too. A lot of folks think that if smarter people believe (or don’t believe) something, it’s probably right.
But should we actually buy into that? Honestly… not really.
Here’s the thing: just because someone’s brilliant in one area doesn’t automatically make them an expert in everything. Think about it—would you trust your mechanic’s opinion on politics, or quantum mechanics, just because he’s great at fixing cars? Of course not. And the reason is that no matter how much training he has in car mechanics, that training doesn’t equip him to adequately speak to issues in politics and quantum mechanics.
Same thing applies here. Just because a scientist is super smart in his or her field doesn’t mean he or she is qualified to speak on questions about God.
Why? Because God isn’t something science can directly study. God’s not material. He’s not part of the physical world that science deals with. So even if a scientist is a total genius in biology or physics, that doesn’t mean he’s equipped to weigh in on whether God exists.
It’s like asking a world-class chef to critique a symphony. He might have good taste—but music isn’t his expertise.
Now, this doesn’t mean science can’t enter the discussion about God’s existence at all. There are certain things the scientific community tells us that can be of help when talking about God’s existence. But that scientific evidence only goes so far. It merely provides us empirical data to start our philosophical inquiry into whether God exists. The scientist is rightly trusted when it comes to giving us the data. But the philosophical inquiry goes beyond his competence as a scientist.
A similar response goes for philosophers. Not every philosopher is familiar with the arguments for God’s existence. A philosopher might specialize in ethics, political theory, or the philosophy of mind—and never seriously engage with the arguments for God within the philosophy of religion.
So if a philosopher hasn’t studied arguments for God’s existence, like those philosophers who specialize in the philosophy of religion, his opinion on the matter doesn’t really carry more weight than the opinions of any other thoughtful or educated person.
In fact, some atheist philosophers actually misunderstand the classic arguments for God pretty badly. A good example is philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett. In his book Breaking the Spell, he summarizes the cosmological argument like this:
“The Cosmological Argument, which in its simplest form states that since everything must have a cause, the universe must have a cause—namely God… [But then] what caused God?” (pg. 242).
But here’s the problem: Dennet thinks the core idea is that everything must have a cause and that’s not what the cosmological argument says at all.
Take Aquinas’s five ways, for example. These arguments don’t start with “everything has a cause.” Instead, they start with things like motion, or the fact that some things don’t have the reason for their existence in themselves. Or that things have order and direction. It’s these things that need a cause, which then, when worked out philosophically, leads to the logical necessity of something existing that doesn’t need a cause—something that’s uncaused in its existence, uncaused in its causality of motion, and uncaused in its directing activity, the ultimate foundation for everything else.
The logic of these arguments leads to the conclusion that there must be a first cause—a cause that itself wasn’t caused—because an infinite chain of caused causes just doesn’t make sense when worked out philosophically. So when Richard Dawkins calls this “a completely unwarranted assumption” in chapter four of his book The God Delusion, he’s missing the point. The logic behind God’s existence, at least in arguments like Aquinas’s Five Ways, is way stronger than that.
Now, back to the idea that most smart people—you know, the intellectual type, like philosophers and scientists—are atheists. What do we make of this?
Well, here’s where things get interesting. Let’s break it down into two parts.
First, when it comes to what scientists and philosophers actually believe, the numbers aren’t as one-sided as people think.
Now, let’s be clear: stats don’t prove whether God exists or not. But if someone’s looking to follow what the intellectual crowd thinks, it might surprise them to know that a lot of smart people do believe in God.
Take scientists, for example. People often cite the National Academy of Sciences to show that most scientists are atheists—but that’s just around 2,000 elite members. Compare that to over 2 million scientists in the U.S. alone, according to the National Science Foundation.
So what do the broader numbers look like?
According to a 2009 Pew Research Center study:
- 51% of scientists believe in God or some higher power.
- 41% reject belief in any higher power.
- Only 17% actually identify as atheists.
So—despite what we often hear—most scientists do believe in God or some form of higher power.
Now let’s talk philosophers. The PhilPapers survey found that among philosophers who actually specialize in the philosophy of religion, about 72% are theists. That’s a huge number!
Even atheist philosopher Quentin Smith admitted in a 2001 article in the journal Philo that belief in God made a big comeback in philosophy departments starting in the 1960s. His exact words? “God is not dead in academia.”
So if you’re someone who wants to base your beliefs on what smart people think—well, the smart people aren’t all atheists. In fact, a lot of them aren’t.
And I must say, it’s good to know that you don’t have to feel like you’re anti-intellectual for believing in God.
Okay, for the second part of our response, let’s look at history. Some of the greatest minds ever—including founders of modern science—were believers.
Let me give you just a few examples:
Nicolaus Copernicus, who gave us the heliocentric model, said:
“The universe has been wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly Creator.” [1]
Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician and astronomer behind the laws of planetary motion, wrote this:
“Praise and glorify with me the wisdom and greatness of the Creator, which I have revealed in a deeper explication of the form of the universe.”[2]
Max Planck, father of quantum theory, once said:
“Religion is the link that binds man to God—resulting from the respectful humility before a supernatural power, to which all human life is subject.”[3]
Hermann Weyl is another. Weyl was one of the great mathematicians of the twentieth century, who also played a role in theoretical physics. Here’s what he writes in his 1986 book, The Open World: Three Lectures on the Metaphysical Implications of Science:
Many people think that modern science is far removed from God. I find on the contrary . . . in our knowledge of physical nature we have penetrated so far that we can obtain a vision of the flawless harmony which is in conformity with sublime reason (pg. 28-29).
Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), British astronomer, had this to say in his 1981 Engineering and Science Journal essay entitled “The Universe: Past and Present Reflections”:
Would you not say to yourself, “Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly miniscule?” Of course you would . . . A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.
Here’s a quote from Robert Jastrow (1925–2008), founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies:
The scientist . . . has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls him- self over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theo- logians who have been sitting there for centuries (pg. 116).
That comes from his book 1978 God and the Astronomers.
This is just a sampling of great scientific minds throughout history who affirm God’s existence.
But it doesn’t stop there. Catholic clergy have made huge contributions to science too:
Take, Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1168–1253), for example, a 12th and 13th century, bishop of Lincoln in England who pioneered that branch of science called “optics.”
Roger Bacon, a 13th-century Franciscan monk, predicted the construction of the telescope and helped lay the groundwork for the scientific method.
St. Albert the Great (1200–1280), a 13th century bishop who taught St. Thomas Aquinas, did a great amount of observational work in botany and zoology.
Thomas Bradwardine (1290–1349), a 14th century archbishop of Canterbury, was the first to attempt to formulate a mathematical law of motion.
Nicholas of Oresme (1323–1382), a 14th century bishop of Lisieux in France, made significant contributions to psychology, physics, mathematics, and economics.
Christoph Scheiner (1573–1650), a 16th and 17th century Jesuit priest, was one of the first five people to discover sunspots with a telescope independently of one another. His sunspot data is still used by scientists today.
Giambattista Riccioli (1598–1671), a 16th and 17th century Jesuit priest, was the first person to observe a binary star, he perfected the pendulum for measuring time in a precise manner, and mapped the surface of the moon with his fellow Jesuit, Francesco Grimaldi.
Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799), a Catholic priest, was a top biologist in the eighteenth century whose investigative work and experiments served as the foundation for the work of Louis Pasteur.
Giuseppe Piazzi (1746–1826), a Catholic priest, was the director of the Palermo Observatory and discovered the first known asteroid.
Pietro Secchi (1818–1878), a Catholic priest, was a founder of modern astrophysics and initiated the study and classification of stars using spectroscopy (color classification).
Gregor Mendel, a 19th century Augustinian monk, founded the field of genetics.
Abbe Henri Breuil (1877–1962), one of the leading paleontologists of the 20th century and known for his expertise on cave paintings and prehistoric art.
Perhaps one of the most famous examples is Fr. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest and director of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He was one of the first to propose what we now call the Big Bang theory.
So when you look at both history and current stats, it’s just not true that religion is only for the uneducated. Some of the brightest minds—past and present—have been deeply religious.
If you’re a believer, you don’t need to feel like you’re being irrational or anti-intellectual. Far from it. Faith and reason can go hand in hand.
Well, my friends, that’s it for today! If you found this video helpful, make sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who might need to hear this. And for more resources, check out my website at karlobroussard.com.
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Thanks for hanging out, and I’ll see you next time!
[1] Quoted in Roy Abraham Varghese, The Wonder of the World: A Journey from Modern Science to the Mind of God (Fountain Hills: YR Publishing, 2003), 103.
[2] Quoted in Varghese, The Wonder of the World, 103.
[3] Quoted in Raymond J. Seeger, “Planck, Physicist” in The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 37 (December 1985): 232–233.