# Are there any super smart people who believe in God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233 "2007-10-10T17:06:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/41 "2007-10-10T21:05:57Z")
A well-known (to astrophysicists, anyway) 20th century astrophysicist who believed in God was [Georges Lemaitre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre)- he was an astrophysicist (he came up with the idea of the Big Bang) and a Catholic priest. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/42 "2007-10-10T21:14:11Z")
I have personally known a number of the top mathematicians of the 20th century and, hard as it is for me to credit, at least one or two were really believers. When I say top, I mean among the top 20 or 30 of the century. Of the rest, most either said nothing of their beliefs or made it clear that they were non-believers. No, I will give no cites (and no names either) and if you don’t believe me that is your problem ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/43 "2007-10-10T21:47:34Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] …there are Jeffrey L. Stout, Mark Juergensmeyer, Linda L. Barnes, Douglas R. McGaughey, Jane Marie Law, Donna Bowman, W. Clark Gilpin, Davina C. Lopez, Hans J. Hillerbrand, Richard M. Jaffe, Susan M. Maloney, Anthony B. Pinn, Francis X. Clooney, Michelene Pesantubbee, Charles Hartshorne, and a host of others. [/QUOTE] Hmmm. My education must be lacking. I recognize none of these names. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/44 "2007-10-10T21:47:35Z")
Synthesizing the data here and from what I have read about religiosity among those who go to college, those with advanced degrees, etc, it seems that the smarter you are the less likely to believe in god you are. However, the the chance never seems to hit zero no matter how smart the subset of the population. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/45 "2007-10-10T22:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Hmmm. My education must be lacking. I recognize none of these names. [/QUOTE] They’re various religious study professors. I can’t independently vouch for any of their beliefs, though. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/46 "2007-10-10T22:28:01Z")
[Charles Townes](http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/06/17_townes.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/47 "2007-10-10T22:37:25Z")
[QUOTE=Hari Seldon] No, I will give no cites (and no names either) and if you don’t believe me that is your problem [/QUOTE] Then why even post here if you aren’t even going to try to support your lies? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/48 "2007-10-10T23:02:13Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Hmmm. My education must be lacking. I recognize none of these names. [/QUOTE] They’re philosophers and anthropologists — quintessential thinkers. You can Google any of them and probably Wiki most. They may not all be famous, but in their fields they are well respected. The OP asked for people who “can be a genius and believe in a higher being”, not necessarily pop-science idols and entertainers. Lots of great contemporary names have been brought up in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/49 "2007-10-10T23:11:06Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] They’re various religious study professors. [/QUOTE] Most are more generally accomplished as well, which is why I included them. Like Richard M. Jaffe, for instance, who has done pioneering research in computer languages (especially Fortran) and scheduling algorithms for parallel processes. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/50 "2007-10-10T23:12:43Z")
I’ll mention one of my college professors, Frank J. Tipler www.math.tulane.edu/~tipler/. I don’t know about his personal faith, but he is trained as a mathematical physicist and seems to do his work in the area of the mathematical physics of God, immortality and miracles. I had him for two classes, one a seminar on his book _The Anthropic Cosmological Principle_. I didn’t follow everything in that seminar, but there were times when he appeared to be writing mathematical proofs of God’s existence on the chalkboard. He also filled in to teach my calculus class for a few weeks. I didn’t follow all of that, either. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/51 "2007-10-11T01:06:38Z")
The Roman Catholic Church’s religeous order known as the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. the Jesuits, are a highly educated order known for teaching in universities and other schools of higher learning. > **[Jesuits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_jesus)** > > The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits (/ˈdʒɛʒu.ɪts, ˈdʒɛz(j)u, ˈdʒɛs-/; Latin: Iesuitae), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and six companions, with the approval of Pope Paul III. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations. Jesuits work in education, research, an The... ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/52 "2007-10-11T01:19:29Z")
[John Polkinghorne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne) is a pretty interesting guy. [Kenneth Miller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_R._Miller), one of the staunchest opponents of creationist nonsense, is a devout Roman Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/53 "2007-10-11T01:36:38Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] I took that quote to mean she doesn’t have the balls to piss off all of the Christians who read Parade magazine… And as an aside, shouldn’t the smartest person ever be doing something more important with their life than a Q&A column in Parade magazine? [/QUOTE] I don’t have a Snap-On Handy-Cite[sup]TM[/sup] like Bricker is demanding for the main topic, but I did hear an interview where she alluded to making more than $100k a year for her column. A friend of mine in the business believes, based on her per-article cost for the paper they work for, that she could make juuuuuuust a wee bit more than that. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/54 "2007-10-11T01:51:30Z")
[QUOTE=Anne NevilleThis article says that a 1997 survey done by _Nature_ showed that 40% of scientists believe in a personal god that you could pray to.[/QUOTE] Yes, but the more prestigious the scientist, the less likely they are to believe in god. [A similar survey](http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/3506.asp) shows that only 7% of members of the National Academy of Science believed in a personal god. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/55 "2007-10-11T02:29:58Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] Then why even post here if you aren’t even going to try to support your lies? [/QUOTE] **Moderator Warning** \*\*Derleth, \*\* this kind of post is inappropriate for GQ. You know this. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/56 "2007-10-11T02:38:27Z")
It does seem that atheists are better represented among the well-educated than among the population at large (I wouldn’t read too much into this), but you’d have to have a pretty insular perspective, I think, to not realize theism, of some stripe or another, is still very popular, even among the cream of the intellectual crop. It may drop from “almost everyone in the world” to just “reasonably common among smart people”, but the idea that it would drop to zero is just ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/57 "2007-10-11T02:56:37Z")
Werner Von Braun became a devout Protestant after the war. God knows he had a lot to repent. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/58 "2007-10-11T03:31:44Z")
How about [Mark Noll,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Noll) the historian? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/59 "2007-10-11T03:33:31Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Most are more generally accomplished as well, which is why I included them. Like Richard M. Jaffe, for instance, who has done pioneering research in computer languages (especially Fortran) and scheduling algorithms for parallel processes. [/QUOTE] I’m not saying they don’t, but do you have evidence they all believe in God? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233/60 "2007-10-11T04:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] …who has done pioneering research in computer languages… [/QUOTE] Ah, speaking of computer scientists: Donald E. Knuth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-super-smart-people-who-believe-in-god/422233.md?page=4)