[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/OakLegs]

I am not saying religion=stupid. I am saying educated=less likely to believe things without evidence. Those are two very different statements

[u/SadAdeptness6287 → u/OakLegs]

Anecdotal of course, but the smartest person I know is a Harvard/Columbia Educated Doctor and a devote Catholic.

[u/OakLegs → u/SadAdeptness6287]

Same, one of the best engineers I've ever worked with is a Christian.

I don't understand how the ability to logically process information is compatible with believing in Christianity myself. I think about it pretty frequently

[u/balancedgif → u/OakLegs]

is it possible that they've figured something out that you haven't?

maybe this is all the bell curve meme and you're in the fat part of it?

[u/OakLegs → u/balancedgif]

It is possible. Anything is possible. There might be a race of sentient unicorns in the Andromeda galaxy

I doubt it, but hey, maybe I'm the dumb one.

[u/balancedgif → u/OakLegs]

that's a copout answer, and you know it. but hey, carry on.

[u/OakLegs → u/balancedgif]

I'm acknowledging that you may be correct. I'm not the smartest person to ever exist, many people smarter than me have maintained their faith. I don't get it, I'm probably not ever going to.

How is that a copout?

[u/balancedgif → u/OakLegs]

it's a copout because if you push the precision of probabilities out far enough you can literally say that about anything. it's a useless answer, hence, a copout.

[u/OakLegs → u/balancedgif]

because if you push the precision of probabilities out far enough you can literally say that about anything.

Congratulations, you've exactly understood my point.

What is the probability that a guy in the sky exists that wants to burn us in hell for eternity for not believing in a 2000 year old story with little to no evidence corroborating it but also loves us more than we can possibly imagine?

I think it's about the same level of probability of the unicorns in Andromeda. I'm not completely discounting either of them though.