Not Many Intellectuals Are Chosen

I’ve been meditating on how “not many wise according to the flesh” (1 Cor. 1:26) are chosen to be heirs of eternal life. Those who are more educated tend to reject the Bible. According to some statistics there is a direct correlation between higher education and atheism. Less than 10% of scientists have any belief in God. Like it or not, however, this confirms the statement made by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26. This crowd is considered the highly intellectual and “wise” group of modern society.

So, humanly speaking, why do the more educated seemingly reject a belief in God more than the less knowledgeable? The skeptics (atheists and agnostics) obviously like to claim that they are just smarter and that logic tells you there is no god—or at least that you cannot know if a god exists. Humanly speaking, I believe there are three main reasons why the more educated reject God:

1. Mainstream science has already declared god as being “dead,” and establishment scientists teach evolution, the Big Bang, and other godless ideas as fact so as to discourage people from believing in God. Mainstream science has found ways to supposedly explain “everything” without the need for God—or at least that is what atheists so confidently and dogmatically claim. This atmosphere in the mainstream scientific community creates a blind-leading-the-blind situation, where newcomers are indoctrinated with these gross distortions of the truth.
2. “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1) and causes people to become confident of their own ignorance. When you put everything to a logical test before believing it, you end up exulting the infallibility of the mind, and you leave no room for faith.
3. Peer pressure causes the minority religious newcomers to feel excluded and “uncool”. The tendency for any person is to want to fit in with their community. Those who go into the mainstream arena of science who hold onto their beliefs are scorned, ridiculed, and often discredited. Therefore, the religious minority often keeps quiet to save face and eventually succumbs to the pressure to reject belief in a god from the majority.

No matter the specific explanation, God said He was not interested in revealing Himself to “many” in the intellectual crowd because of His glory. He is interested in exulting His own name. He has chosen the “foolish” and despised of this world primarily to be His children, such that “no flesh would glory in His presence.” It takes humility to receive the gospel, and the majority of the intellects of this world do not have it. No one in heaven will be saying, “I got here because I was just so smart.”