Are educated people becoming LESS freethinking/secular

[masterpeastheater]

At my workplace and in my social circles the past few years, I have noticed a new pattern. It seems that conservative religious types are more likely to get lots of (the right kind of course) of education and the nice cushy professional well paying jobs, while the less educated less money making peeps see religion as a bunch of wingnuttery.

I suppose if there is a new statistical pattern emerging here, and not just an aberration in my environment, the the dynamic is more or less as follows:
Education has become about getting a job instead of,you know, an education. So educated people are becoming more "go along to get along" than used to be the case. So more conservative religious types therefore are climbing the corporate ladder. Economic success has become more about working the system than brains or talent, and this attracts the conservative religious types.

 

[masterpeastheater]

I suppose I should add that this may be part and parcel of our emerging neo Victorian era. Technology destroys jobs and steepens class divisions. Middle and upper middle class peeps go to church a lot and give lots of morality lectures to the masses.

 

[Achwienichtig]

It's not so much an issue of education but more a matter of the values that corporate America is selecting for among the educated class. People like me who get an education centered around enlightenment indeed find themselves better off intellectually but with no job opportunities, while people who don't feel the need for enlightenment (because they already have all the answers) will go for an education in career oriented subjects.

Freethought is indeed on the rise, but it's not going to automatically work its way into positions of power.

 

[masterpeastheater]

I see what you mean. Perhaps we will see hardly anyone go for an enlightenment centered education in years to come t
Due to the loan debt and difficulty of finding a job....I might be seeing the leading bleeding edge of that. A new dark age with lots of MBA and BSs.

 

[barbos]

First of all, MBA and other shit like accounting is not an education in my humble opinion, STEM is.
Second of all, "education" bubble has been expanding last couple of decades with shit other than STEM so there is no wonder that conservatives are getting "eduction"

 

[Underseer]

All the statistics say that the opposite is happening from what your anecdotal evidence suggests.

 

[beero1000]

Yea, I don't think that is true. In fact, the opposite is most likely. At the very least, there is a significant negative correlation between educational attainment and religiosity, but there is also some reason to suspect a causal link.

An interesting paper: http://www3.nd.edu/~dhungerm/ed_relig.pdf

Using compulsory schooling laws in Canada is about as close to a controlled experiment as possible here. The results are surprising (to me at least). "An additional year of education leads to a 4-percentage-point decline in the likelihood that an individual identifies with any religious tradition."

 

[barbos]

All the statistics say that the opposite is happening from what your anecdotal evidence suggests.

But that's not what OP claims. It claims more conservatives go and get education than before, it says nothing about evolution of their conservative views after getting that education.

 

[bilby]

"Who would've guessed reading and writing would pay off?" - Homer.

(Simpson, not the Greek dude).

 

[Will Wiley]

Well as Jesus has again failed to return christians are probably more inclined to accept they won't get raptured

 

[Keith&Co.]

Well as Jesus has again failed to return christians are probably more inclined to accept they won't get raptured

Or, they get louder about blaming the atheists and the gays and the Muslim president for pissing God off and delaying the rapture...

 

[Atheos]

Troublesome times are here
Filling men's hearts with fear
Freedom we all hold dear
Now is at stake.

Jeezis is coming soon!!!

-- R.E. Winsett, circa 1942

Any minute now...

 

[Kharakov]

Troublesome tines are here
Filling undead hearts with fear
Freedom you hold so dear
Cow is at stake.