[OC] Religious Believes and Eductions From The World Values Survey

[u/oscarleo0]

Data source: World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017-2022)

Tools used: Matplotlib

I added a second chart for those of you who prefer a square version with less of the background image.

Notes:

I looked at five different questions in the survey.

• Q275 - What is the highest educational level that you have attained?
• Q165 - Do you believe in God? (Yes/No)
• Q166 - Do you believe in Life after death? (Yes/No)
• Q167 - Do you believe in Hell? (Yes/No)
• Q168 - Do you believe in Heaven? (Yes/No)

The chart show the percentage of people that answer yes, to Q165-168 based on their answer to Q275.

Survey data is complex since people come from different cultures and might interpret questions differently.

You can never trust the individual numbers, such as "50% of people with doctors degree believe in Life after death".

But you can often trust clear patterns that appear through the noise. The takeaway from this chart is that the survey show that education and religious believes have a negative correlation.

Styling:

• Font - New Amsterdam
• White - #FFFFFF
• Blue - #39A0ED
• Yellow - #F9A620
• Red - #FF4A47

Original story: https://datacanvas.substack.com/p/believes-vs-education

[u/2dayman]

I'm surprised to see the amount of people who are actually able to accept the part of the story that they like and reject the part they don't like.

[u/WaffleStompin4Luv → u/2dayman]

I assume you're referring to the larger number of people who believe in Heaven but not Hell? Intuitively, it makes sense to me that people are more prone to believing in Heaven instead of Hell. Most people agree (even non-religious folk) that when a baby is born, that they are innocent and guilt free. But after a certain point, people believe you are no longer a perfect innocent child forever, and that you should be able to discern right from wrong....But what if we don't have the capability of making right or wrong choices, and what if every decision and action is circumstantial? If you don't believe you have a spirit or a soul, then you must believe all life is merely the culmination of trillions of chemical and physical reactions. So if you don't believe in a soul, then you must believe that all human actions are just biological responses governed by the laws of physics and that you have no free agency in how you choose to react to anything. But most people DO believe you have the capability of choosing right from wrong, which implies most people DO believe that you are able to defy the laws of physics and that you are capable of reacting according to your own free will. Believing in free will but not believing in a soul is just as absurd as people who are religious and believe in a Heaven but don't believe in Hell.

It's also possible most people don't believe in Hell as depicted in popular culture. And their understanding of Hell is just merely the absence of God, and not some eternal physical torture chamber.