This has been measured, it's not a matter of opinion. See for example the references in "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins (2006).

And from personal experience (I did my phd at MIT and am doing a postdoc at Harvard) there are very religious people doing graduate studies here, but they are about 10% (in my measure), and about 30% mildly religious people (in my measure), far less than the proportion of religious people in the general population.

Depends on what type of education, if they develop their cognitive processes and an effective way of gaining knowledge, I'd say they'd be less likely to be religious since they would more likely be aware of when something is illogical.

Wow this was a question that I really had to think about. Being religious myself I had to step away a bit from the question and really think about it. I would like to say No to this really bad but then I have to think about how I was raised and trying to get answers to questions myself and relised that I have to say yes. I remember as a child being drug to church by my mother and every time I asked a question about the world and church being chastised and told my curiosity was a sin and that is a matter of faith. as I grew older I stopped going to church. This is a part of the problem most churches tell children that asking questions is wrong. I know people in a lot of faiths that teach such blind ignorance. This is why we have such a gap in education levels. I have since found a faith that encourages questions and study. Here I how found very intelligent and educated people. but most religious people whenever there is an issue that may touch on a personal belief they put there hands over there ears and block out what is said. if we all though this way it would still be believed the world is flat. It saddens me that most religions on the earth haven't grown past this. In the end there will only be truth and there is nothing wrong with discovering those truths.

...and full of themselves.

I would say yes but not because they are less gullible. Because they are more convinced in their own ability to reason things. They become the epitome of everything rational and logical. And so, for them, to believe in something that they themselves did not create would seem foolish to them and weak.

I would say it's more of pride then of actually being smarter than the insignificant little ones that believe in God.

An interesting article entitled 'Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God''.

A person with a decent education will be aware of the scientific process of progress in understanding through observation, testing, prediction and repeatability. Such a person will understand the power of the scientific method and how it has relentlessly destroyed previously held beliefs which were not based on the reason built up by technical scrutiny e.g. the sun is a fiery chariot, the earth is flat, disease is established by the evil eye etc. A person with a good education will be aware of the countless dead religions, the pattern of structured religion, the cargo cults, the fact that whatever religion one might subscribe to, it is a minority belief on the planetary scale. An educated person will always ask questions and will not accept unreasonable assertions and claims without convincing evidence. AN educated person seeks the truth and has the luxury to eschew superstition.

Wow, so those labels are absolutely biased. At any rate, I think it's a matter of upbringing and personality. More and more people across the education spectrum are becoming less and less religious. I don't think it's a matter of education but changing societal and cultural norms.

I think you'd have a very difficult time making this argument with my rector, who was a tenured professor and head of the history department at a major university in Oregon. Nor would you have much success with the majority of our parishioners, who come from academic backgrounds at the University of Arizona. While there is probably a good argument to be made that those with higher educations are less likely to be fundamentalist Biblical literalists, that is hardly the case in my own liberal Episcopal church, among many liberal churches.

Doubtful, there were highly educated people who bought into the Nazi regime. Coming from a strict Catholic home and being an atheist myself, I can understand why a person finds a need to believe in a god. For many, it is a comforting thought that religion offers. For others, the idea of religion is pounded into your head from the moment you are able to understand language. My sister has a 4 year old boy who, without even having a clear concept of the world, already knows about god. I don't want to be a complete ignoramus and call it brain-washing because I think parents truly think they are doing the right thing. But you certainly become as trained to believe there is a god as you do to feed yourself. This is a very difficult nut to crack later in life. I know for me, it wasnt an easy transition to become an atheist. However, keeping on topic, I don't think it was necessarily me being educated alone that led to my decision. I think time, experience, and the desire to question everything were factors as well. And I don't think that because a person is well-educated that this automatically accompanied by the need to question the status quo, otherwise why would we have all these republicans (haha...totally kidding!). Also, a truly educated person would also know that scientifically you can never rule out the existence of a god until it is disproven (which it can't be either) so I can completely understand why some may choose to opt for religion. It comes down to choosing to subscribe to "Faith". We all live our lives using this sometimes. I have "faith" that every morning I leave my house, I wont be hit by a bus. One can only hope that education will make people more understanding with there beliefs, more open to talk with those who disagree, and less extremist when it comes to religion.

There seems to be an assumption posed within this topic that uneducated people are more religious. Proper wording for this topic would have been: Does religion have a positive or negative correlation with an individual's level of education.

Yes, that's a less sexy question, but it's more valuable because it's unbiased.

Now, on to the substance. First, something important to understand is that religious leaders from major world religions must possess an undergraduate college degree and additional certification from formal post-graduate seminary schools. Depending upon the religion at question, these additional schools will have different names.

These people obviously have a higher level of education than average. However, that only answers the question that some better educated people are more religious than the average person.

(My assumption being if you study religion to that degree you are more religious than average.)

To fully answer this question, I would need statistics about the number of highly educated people who attend church more often than the average person or who engage in religious practices more often than the average person. I do not have those stats but that doesn't mean they do not exist.

It is my suspicion that there is no correlation between an individual's level of education and his/her religious fidelity. I think the tendencies that cause an individual to be religious are unrelated to the ones that cause us to seek out education and both the highly religious and the highly education can possess the qualities of one another.

That is, the qualities that cause an individual to be highly religious and highly educated are _not_ mutually exclusive.

What is religion anyway? A set of philosophies and values that affect the roles we play in society. I think education, especially in the U.S., has done its best to eradicate the values that do not correlate with the idea of Capitalism. Most religious values conflict with the idea of capitalism and consumerism--hence they are blockages to the people who stand to make a lot of money.

Are educated people less likely to be religious: No. They are religious, they merely value other things. Instead of valuing people, nature and relationships, they are taught to value the almighty dollar.

I'm answering "No" but let me clarify...

Statistics show a reverse correlation between education and religious or spiritual participation. But, there is no proof that the education causes the disbelief. Isn't it at least as likely that someone who questions the world around them (including their religion) will seek more information and therefore more education?