A couple of topics recently have made me think about exactly how cynical are the WTS when it comes to their higher education policy for the rank and file.
First one was Mavie's about her forthcoming JC which prompted me to flick through Richard Dawkins The God Delusion. Dawkins quotes from a study published in Mensa Magazine 2002;
"Of 43 studies carried out since 1927 on the relationship between religious belief and one's intelligence and/or educational level, all but four found an inverse connection. That is, the higher one's intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious or hold "beliefs" of any kind."
Hmmm - could the WTS be aware of this link and deliberately formulate a policy which maximises their chances of retaining an under-educated membership?
The second post that caught my eye was Nvrgbk's here about Faith vs Reason. In part it mentions a Harvard study about the same link between education and religious belief - perhaps the Harvard study was one of the 43 captured by the Mensa author.
"This study found that, in general, increased education causes individuals to "sort into less fervent religions" and "decrease[s] belief in the returns to religious activity". The study found a strong negative correlation between higher education and beliefs that miracles occur, that heaven and hell exist, that the Devil is an actual being and that the Bible is literally true. More educated people were significantly less likely to believe all these things."
I checked out the actual Harvard study and the abstract of the paper is as follows:
In the United States, religious attendance rises sharply with education across individuals, but religious attendance declines sharply with education across denominations.
This puzzle is explained if education both increases the returns to social connection and reduces the extent of religious belief. The positive effect of education on sociability explains the positive education-religion relationship. The negative effect of education on religious belief causes more educated individuals to sort into less fervent religions, which explains the negative reelationship between education and religion across denominations.
Cross-country differences in the impact of education on religious belief can explain the large cross-country variation in the education-religion connection. These cross-country differences in the education-belief relationship can be explained by political factors (such as communism) which lead some countries to use state-controlled education to discredit religion.
The entire paper can be found here:
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2001/HIER1913.pdf
It makes for very interesting reading for the enlightened WTS sceptic.
So the WTS has a belief system that fundamentally attracts undereducated people to join and a higher education policy to keep the young JW's undereducated and therefore in the system.
Or am I being too cynical?