WOF 091: Does Religion Have a Smart-People Problem?
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Brandon Vogt
4.9 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2017
⏱️ 22 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every now and then, articles and surveys pop up suggesting that religious people are, by whatever criteria, dumber than then general population—or at least dumber than atheists. Today Bishop Barron responds to this and the charge that religion has a “smart-people problem.” A listener asks about new ecclesial movements in the Church.
Also, be sure to take advantage of our Word on Fire Show listener sale! ENTER PROMO CODE: DAVID to save $10 on our newest film at DavidTheKing.com
Topics Discussed
- 0:05 - Intro and Catholic podcast recommendations
- 1:30 - Bishop Barron's initial reaction to the articles claiming that religion has a smart-people problem.
- 5:00 - What does it say about religion when studies show that most scientists are atheists?
- 8:30 - Is it worrisome that most professional philosophers are atheists?
- 12:00 - Does it matter that most religious philosophers are theists?
- 13:30 - How does the culture feel about religious people, are they considered childish and simple-minded?
- 17:50 - What does historical evidence tell us about the relationship between science and religion?
- 19:30 - Question from listener: What's your take on Communion and Liberation and other ecclesial movements in the Church?
Bonus Resources
- Study Program
- Articles
- "Religion’s Smart-People Problem: The Shaky Intellectual Foundations of Absolute Faith" (Salon)
- "A Scientist Looked Through 63 Studies to Conclude Atheists are More Intelligent than Religious People" (Indy 100)
- "Atheists More Intelligent Because They Can Override “Instinctive” Religious Beliefs—But It Will Be Their Downfall" (Newsweek)
- "Religion’s Smart-People Problem: The Shaky Intellectual Foundations of Absolute Faith" (Salon)
- Videos
- Websites
Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Vot the host and you're joining us for another episode with his |
| 0:10.5 | excellency Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop Barron, welcome. Hey Brandon, good morning. Always great to be with you. |
| 0:16.0 | It's good to be with you too. You know, we're creeping up here on our hundredth episode. I think this is number 91. Can you believe that? |
| 0:22.8 | No, honestly, I can't. I don't know. I would have said we've done, you know, 20 or 30 of these things. |
| 0:27.5 | And you know, they're each like 25, 30 minutes. That means we've been talking together for like 45 hours. |
| 0:32.8 | We've got to get a life. It is unbelievable. I never would have guessed we had nearly a hundred of these things. |
| 0:38.9 | Yeah, it's a good moment here and I want to encourage all of our listeners here to support Catholic podcasts. |
| 0:45.2 | You know, there's there's a huge and growing number of great Catholic podcasts here. I'm going to |
| 0:50.4 | tick off just a few of my favorites. There's the Catholic stuff you should know podcasts with some |
| 0:54.9 | young priests from Denver. There's Pints with Aquinas with Matt Fratt, a young Australian |
| 0:59.7 | Thomas catching foxes. There's made to magnify fountains of carrots. Lea Derro's podcasts do |
| 1:06.6 | something beautiful. And then another one I know you've been on Bishop three dogs north with some |
| 1:11.1 | one of the line seminarians and priests. Yeah, great. Lots of lots of great stuff out there. So please, |
| 1:16.4 | if you like the word on fire show, subscribe to some of these other podcasts too. We need more |
| 1:21.9 | Catholic listeners for this growing medium and there's just a lot of good stuff out there. So |
| 1:27.3 | that's our little plug here to support the world of Catholic podcasting. Okay, Bishop, |
| 1:32.1 | let's move into today's topic, which is called Does Religion Have a Smart People Problem? |
| 1:38.8 | We see articles and surveys like this pop up from time to time suggesting that religious people are |
| 1:45.4 | by whatever criteria they determine, dumber than the general population. Let me give a couple of |
| 1:51.2 | examples here. Then I want to get your thoughts. One article just popped up a month ago that said, |
| 1:56.3 | this was the title of it, a scientist looked through 63 studies to conclude atheists are more |
| 2:02.6 | intelligent than religious people. There was another recent article in Newsweek, which began with |
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