@JLeslie I think that intellectual people are more likely to adhere to the scientific method; they won’t place total faith in things that cannot be empircially proven. While some may retain some degree of faith and consider holy scripture to be an eyewitness account, it is more likely that they won’t take it as literal truth unless it is repeatable and consistent.
Many religions require you to adhere to someone else’s interpretation as opposed to thinking for yourself whereas most of the intellectual people I know prefer to llok at the raw facts and form their own opinions. As a result, we tend to stray from traditional faith, whether that leads us to a newer faith (or an evolved interpretation of an older one) or Agnosticism/Atheism.
And let us not forget the big blow-up between Galileo and the Church over his heretical Heliocentric theory. I think that the main reason intellectuals leave religion or form their own is that “traditional” religions tend to be egotistical and refuses to be proven wrong; something that many of us find totally irrational. The fact that certain religions have a bad history doesn’t help matters either.
I know I personally can’t follow any religion that refuses to admit that translating a text umpteen times can lead to misinterpretations, nor can I base my behavior on a book that is self-contradictory or even ambiguous. Therefore, I cannot follow any faith that sets rules instead of mere guidelines.
And yes, I feel it is entirely possible that religion can stunt people since they may reject reality in favor of the words of someone who has been dead for centuries. If we all believed that our ancestors were 100% correct then we would be reliving headaches by drilling holes in people’s skulls to allow the evil spirits to escape instead of developing Tylenol.