I need help with this one

[OhioBlue]

what do you smart people make of this? A former colleage of mine emailed me this snippet from wikipedia and asked me if I could explain it. I am, to be honest, actually surprised by it myself a bit. Help me figure this out, so I can help her.

"But perhaps even more striking is the correlation between education levels
and religiosity displayed among the Mormons. Survey research indicated that
41% of Mormons with only elementary school education attend Church
regularly. By contrast, 76% of Mormon college graduates attend Church
regularly and 78% of Mormons who went beyond their college degrees to do
graduate study attend Church regularly. As Mormons attain more education, it
seems, they become more devout.
[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence#_note-9>These
findings, again, contrast with national norms; national survey data
published by the Princeton Religious Research Center indicate that the
higher the level of educational attainment, the lower the level of religious
zeal. [11]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence#_note-10>

[MikeWaters]

I think I predicted this when arguing with SU earlier.

Smarterm more educated Mormons tend to be more active.

[Detroitdad]

This phenomenon is also prevalent in the Southern part of the United States, up until the point of graduate school.
I can only speculate that this may be because in general there may be a greater tendency to value education more in the church than outside of it. Therefore, those who are active are maybe more highly likely to be studious and value education more. So, it is because of this value that they get more education. So those who were most devout seek out more education, and those who are less devout seek out less education. In other words it is not because of the education that they are more active, but because they are active they seek more education?
Pure speculation on my part, but it is a bit tough to come up with easy answers on this one.

[fusnik11]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I think I predicted this when arguing with SU earlier.

Smarterm more educated Mormons tend to be more active.

Because with education experience raising they have a better chance at being called into a leadership position?

[MikeWaters]

look at the young men and young women in your wards.

I'm betting there is high correlation between going to college and continued activity.

Failure in the church (if you want to put it that way) seems to equate to overall failure (in terms of education and employment).

I have certainly observed this in my ward. The boys that didn't go on missions are pumping gas. The boys that did go are at college.

[fusnik11]

I wonder how extensive the study was for this article.

If you are including the third world countries where inactivity is rampant and education is very poor, it would mess up the numbers.

[MikeWaters]

you can bet it was only in the USA.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by OhioBlue

what do you smart people make of this? A former colleage of mine emailed me this snippet from wikipedia and asked me if I could explain it. I am, to be honest, actually surprised by it myself a bit. Help me figure this out, so I can help her.

"But perhaps even more striking is the correlation between education levels
and religiosity displayed among the Mormons. Survey research indicated that
41% of Mormons with only elementary school education attend Church
regularly. By contrast, 76% of Mormon college graduates attend Church
regularly and 78% of Mormons who went beyond their college degrees to do
graduate study attend Church regularly. As Mormons attain more education, it
seems, they become more devout.
[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence#_note-9>These
findings, again, contrast with national norms; national survey data
published by the Princeton Religious Research Center indicate that the
higher the level of educational attainment, the lower the level of religious
zeal. [11]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence#_note-10>

Here's my theory.

Based on my experience, it seems the #1 reason active LDS become inactive is not due to faith or testimony but due to behavioral issues, i.e.

--they had a drug addiction or got pregnant or went to jail or became sexually promiscuous or some other sinful behavior and didn't feel worthy to attend or were disciplined and felt like giving up
--same as above but felt judged by others and became bitter

Drug addiction, unwed pregnancy, jail, etc. can be correlated to education level also. So education level correlates to activity.

Maybe in other faiths, reasons for inactivity are different than in the LDS church.

Another theory: there is a major cultural peer pressure for middle to upper class LDS in Utah to stick with church. Probably some few people continue to go to church for the social benefit who might bail out somewhere else without that social pressure.

[nuclearunderpants]

...an intellectually stimulating environment for its members.

The church has done a couple of things that help keep it out of trouble:

1. Avoiding the us -vs- them battle currently being waged by protestant Christians against scientests. The church allows biologist to believe in evolution without suffering too much. At church they may encounter anti-evolutionary comments, but the official stance of the church is that they're not sure.

When I went to the Arizona game with two of my high school friends from Arizona who are Baptist, we went to the wildlife museum. I ended up encountering their belief in a young earth. They completely dismissed all of the various dating methods that serve as evidence for a very old universe and earth. I'm not saying I've completely decided one way or another, but their religion demands that they ignore all scientific evidence and adhere to a strict literal interpretation of the Bible.

I could never attend a religion that demans me to put my head in the sand---not saying I'm intellectual though.

2. Produce massive amounts of scholarly material relating to the gospel. With FARMS and FAIR you get apologetics. You also have deep doctrine and historical scriptual work. It seems that most of the scholarly world outside of LDS circles are dedicated to tearing down faith and the myths that surround most religions.

LDS academics (yes I've read the argument here about if such a thing exists) and intellectuals have plenty of well thought out material to satisfy their need to study and think. The other churches have purposely fought academia and science, making it difficult to be both intellectual and faithful.

nup

[Archaea]

Here's another possibility.

I did NOT read the study, but what if, the study is Churchwide, where our poorer countries have lower activity rates, whereas in Utah which has the highest activity rates, and education is emphasized, we are simply seeing multi-cultural demographics.