The more education people receive, the more religious they become?

Most people assume that as individuals become more educated, they become less less religious.

A new study however suggests that the opposite may be true.

By analyzing data from a large national survey, sociologist Philip Schwadel of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that people tend to become more religious - by certain definitions - as they further their education.

Mr Schwadel said: 'It all falls down to what you consider to be religious.

'If it’s simply attending religious services, then no, highly educated people are not less religious. In fact they’re more religious.'

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Religious non-believers: The caveat was that when these people arrived to religious service, they were less likely to take scripture literally.

Mr Schwadel found that with each additional year of education the likelihood of attending religious services increased 15 per cent.

The caveat is that when these individuals arrive to religious services, they're less likely to take scripture literally.

'If it’s saying the Bible is the literal word of God and saying that only one religion is the true religion, then they are less religious,' he said.

Schwadel combed data from the General Social Survey, a highly-regarded cumulative and nationally representative survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Social scientists rely heavily on the General Social Survey, which provides cumulative data collected regularly between 1972 and 2010.

His research will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal Review of Religious Research.

The study also found that the likelihood of reading the Bible at least occasionally increased by 9 per cent with each additional year of education an individual received.

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Religious thinker? Einstein famously said: 'Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.'

The survey also qualified what concept of God or a 'higher power' individuals held, as well as whether they had any doubts.

Mr Schwadel said that: 'With more years of education, you aren’t relatively more likely to say, "I don’t believe in God," but you are relatively more likely to say, "I believe in a higher power."'

Reflecting on this aspect of the study, D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, a book about the growing number of evangelical Christian elite, told CNN that: 'The more educated a person is in their faith, the more cosmopolitan they are in their religious outlook.'

'They’re worldly in the very best sense of the term. They rub shoulders with people of different kinds of faiths every day and as a result they have different visions of what it means to express your faith in the public square.'

He added that: 'They’re more open-minded, but here’s the thing: They’re no less faithful.'

But while highly educated people proved surprisingly drawn toward religion, they were more likely to question the role of religion in secular society.

At the same time, the results showed that they were against curbing the voices of religious leaders on societal issues and supported those leaders' rights to influence people's votes.

On this point, Mr Schwadel said that: 'The results suggest that highly educated Americans are not opposed to religion - even religious leaders stating political opinions - but they are opposed to what may be perceived as religion being forced on secular society.'

He said the research illustrates a unique, voluntary American brand of religiosity. which he believes should open up a discussion about the interactions between education and religion in modern American life.

Mr Schwadel concluded that: 'It's clear that though the religious world-views of the highly educated differ from the religious world-views of those with little education, religion plays an important role in the lives of highly educated Americans. And religion remains relevant to Americans of all education levels.'

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