# Is it free will that renders intelligent people atheistic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 20, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074 "2017-05-20T12:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/61 "2017-05-25T19:45:13Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > What I wonder is the following: if Man is religious be default and intelligent people tend to reject religion, does it mean they choose to embrace atheism? Is it free will that renders intelligent people atheistic? Einstein was very intelligent, and he had free will, he was not an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/62 "2017-05-25T20:18:05Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Einstein was very intelligent, and he had free will, he was not an atheist. Einstein rejected the label “atheist”, but he did not believe in a personal god and did not believe in the afterlife. He called himself an agnostic - and I call agnostics "atheists who don’t like the term ‘atheist’ ". All that said, who cares what Einstein believed? Everyone knows that there are intellectually intelligent people who believe in deities for one reason or another. To the degree that this thread is associating intelligence with atheism it’s talking about trends, not an absolute inviolate law that can be disproven with a single counterexample. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/63 "2017-05-25T21:07:21Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > I’m an atheist, as is David Chapman. One can believe in science without succumbing to scientism. > > In your linked video, Minchin indicates that he is an insignificant bit of carbon, yet he places a great deal of importance on living life and loving his wife. He didn’t say that love is merely a cascade of chemical reactions in the brain designed by evolution to maximize reproductive fitness via pair bonding. Don’t see a problem with that, that is, realizing that should not stop us from continuing with our lives. > [@marshmallow](#): > > Are you a rational egoist, or do you think justice and society have a special value separate from your own interests? History shows to me that there has been a progression to not only get material goods to most of the people, but also a progression on offering justice to more people. While some nations do make an attempt at repressing all their citizens what I see is that the nations that are progressing the most are disposing of repressive tools like command economy schemes. ---
**Author:** ![RedAntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d6d6ee/32.png) [@RedAntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedAntz)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/64 "2017-05-27T02:26:56Z")
It’s intelligence that causes atheism, at least in one’s thoughts. When the intelligent make the motions that they respect any religion it is to control others with their piety. Those who believe–actually believe–are not intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/65 "2017-05-27T03:27:56Z")
> [@RedAntz](#): > > It’s intelligence that causes atheism, at least in one’s thoughts. When the intelligent make the motions that they respect any religion it is to control others with their piety. Those who believe–actually believe–are not intelligent. I know, right? [This guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre) sounds especially stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/66 "2017-05-28T21:58:20Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > All that said, who cares what Einstein believed? It’s in line with the OP. There are tons of absolute blithering idiots with less intelligence than a pea who are atheists. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/67 "2017-05-29T18:15:03Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > It’s in line with the OP. No, it’s not. If someone asks if smoking lowers life expectancy, naming one person that lived a longer than average life expectancy and smoked doesn’t answer the question. Also, the OP wasn’t asking. And as has been mentioned, Einstein did not believe in a personal god, but did not like the term atheist because of the “crusading spirit” connotation he associated with the term. He thought belief in a personal god was childish. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074/68 "2017-06-03T06:34:00Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Why not? > > You seem to be saying that people with a sociopathic lack of empathy and remorse exist alongside those of us who score higher on an empathy-and-remorse spectrum. And that there are people who score low – possibly zero – on a ‘pleasure’ spectrum, just like there are people who do likewise on a ‘mental imagery’ spectrum. > > So what if, as you’re saying, there’s someone who scores a zero on, uh, ‘sacredness appreciation’ – but who scores really high on empathy and remorse? Someone who still gets a high score on the imagery spectrum and the pleasure spectrum, and so gets a single glistening teardrop rolling down his cheek when painting the beauty of nature from memory or whatever – and who also genuinely cares about other people, as per his high score on the ‘empathy’ spectrum? > > Why would he need a separate ‘sacredness’ score to feel love and respect life and gasp at the beauty of nature? If he scored low on the ‘empathy’ spectrum and the ‘imagery’ spectrum and the ‘pleasure’ spectrum, then I don’t see how a high score on some kind of ‘sacredness’ spectrum would help – and if he already scored _high_ on those, then I don’t see how a low score on ‘sacredness’ would hurt. There may actually be a “sacredness” parameter that is hard-coded into the human brain. We all have the ability to find divinity in any particular stimulus, but there is probably a neurological meter in our brain that mediates just how awesome we find any particular stimulus to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-free-will-that-renders-intelligent-people-atheistic/787074.md?page=3)