One of the most evergreen questions about belief is the relationship between religiosity, atheism, and education.

It shows up in debates, troll memes, and headlines, and sometimes in quiet assumptions we make about one another.

We hear claims like education makes people less religious, or that faith is independent of intelligence, or my favorite,

that universities are somehow factories for atheism. But no doubt, the reality is more nuanced,

and hopefully much more interesting than any single talking point. When researchers look at large

populations, a pattern does seem to emerge in many

countries, higher levels of formal education correlate with lower levels of religious belief and

affiliation. College graduates, on average, are more likely to identify as religiously

unaffiliated and less likely to endorse literal interpretations of

scripture. But correlation is not causation and education itself is not a magic solvent that

dissolves faith. I've known dumb atheist and brilliant believers, but I do think that there's

something at work here worth talking about.

What do you have to say about it?

Let us know on Talk Heathen, because the show is coming right now.

All right. All right. Well, welcome. Everybody, today is January 25th, 2026. I am your host, Christy Powell,

and joining me today is Sydney Davis Jr. Jr. So I'm excited to be doing this with you. Yay. I feel like we are

always a team. I feel like every time I'm on, I'm paired with you. And I think what you're saying is that you're like really sick of ending up stuck with me. I wasn't going to say it, but you said it. I wasn't going to. All right. Well, I think that's honestly, it's a good thing because this show could use a little bit more riled upness, a little bit more debate. So let's just go ahead and start there. I think it's the hair ratio. I think just to make the hair ratio,

I think, more riled-upness, a little bit more debate. So let's just go ahead and start there.

I think it's the hair ratio. I think just to make the hair ratio. I think I'm jealous of my locks.

I appreciate it. That's exactly what it is. I appreciate it. Well, I hope that everybody out there is staying warm and safe and dry during this like wild moment in our country's history, politics, weather, it's all a little bit messy at the moment.

So we appreciate you joining us and spending some of your Sunday with us today.

Talk Heathen is a live call-in show and we have open lines.

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