A common stereotype in the MBTI community is that the SJs are the religious traditionalists, while the NTs (especially INTJs) are the atheistic types who are very “open-minded.”
This stereotype probably originated after the MBTI Manual published a study in 1998, titled “Top-Ranked Types Rating ‘No,’ ‘Not Sure,’ or ‘Yes’ Regarding Belief in a Higher Spiritual Power,” in which 23.1% of INTJs responded “no” to believing in a higher spiritual power, a higher percentage than any other type. [1]
However, the majority of INTJs (64.4%) did express a belief in a higher spiritual power, while 12.5% were “not sure.”
Therefore, INTJs had the highest percentage of atheists in that particular study of 3,036 people, but the vast majority believed in a higher spiritual power, which was only 27 percentage points behind the type with the highest percentage (ENFJ).
Next, we have an interesting study conducted on 16personalities.com. They asked the following: “You are very religious.”
The type with the highest percentage to answer “yes” was the ISFJ-Defender (55.37%). INTJ-Architect came in at 37.02%, which was far from the lowest percentage. In fact, there were more “very religious” INTJs than there were “very religious” INFPs.
And while ENFJs were the most religious in the first study I cited, they were not even in the top six “very religious” types in this study, and they were only 5.85 percentage points higher than INTJs.
In a follow-up study, 16personalities.com asked each type the following question: “I am very spiritual.” The NTs and SJs were within 5 percentage points of each other.
Next, in a small study of 40 men from local church councils, INTPs were most common type (18%). ISTJs and INTJs were the second most common type. They tied at 13%. [2]
Another study on the psychological type of Christians completing study courses found that INTJ was the third highest type for men (9%), only two percentage points behind the ISFJs (11%). ISTJ was number one in that study. [3]
Here’s the most fascinating study of all. In 2012, researchers surveyed 10,683 American atheists. The most predominant type among female atheists was the ISTJ type (40.8%). Only 11.7% were INTJs. The same was true for males: 41.4% were ISTJs, and only 14.4% were INTJs. [4]
I guess those religious traditionalist ISTJs are the true skeptics after all.
INTJ Stereotype: INTJs are Open-Minded
I hear these stereotypes all the time. INTJs are so open-minded. Ayn Rand is the poster child for the INTJ female type. She was no social justice warrior. Although she was an atheist, she railed against communism/socialism in her books, considered homosexuality immoral, and made feminists everywhere gasp when she confidently explained why she’d never vote for a female president.
Your religious or personal beliefs have NOTHING to do with the four letters you get on some pseudoscience, occult-based personality test. I hope everyone understands that. You can get “INTJ” and be a militant atheist, dogmatic Christian, an Amish person who shuns electricity, a mystic, an occultist, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim. And while one study may show a certain type to be the most atheistic, another study will probably contradict those results.
Furthermore, people can change their religious or personal beliefs over time, irrespective of “type.” I know I have.
I recently watched a video on Madalyn Murray O’Hair, one of the most famous atheists in history. She got mandatory prayer and Bible reading taken out of American public schools by coercing her son, William Murray, to say that it violated his religious beliefs as an atheist. Her case went to the Supreme Court, and she won.
But over time, this atheist’s son began to see the evil his mother was doing behind closed doors. He’d watch her make up lies as she’d lecture in front of atheists, and those “rational atheists” would swallow those lies hook, line, and sinker. He began to see the emptiness and hypocrisy of it all.
One day, someone shared the gospel with William. He trusted in Christ as his savior, and it radically and dramatically changed his life, just like it changed my life. In 1980, he came out as an evangelical Christian.
Madalyn was furious. She said, “One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times … he is beyond human forgiveness.”
William detailed his story in his book My Life Without God. And that boy who helped get prayer taken out of public schools went on to become the chairman for the Religious Freedom Coalition, an organization that seeks to preserve Christian values in America while supporting persecuted Christians around the world.
But the story doesn’t end there. He never reconciled with his mother. A former worker from Madalyn’s American Atheists organization later murdered her in cold blood. Her murder was featured in the hit show Forensic Files (season 7, episode 10).
The Hypocrisy of “INTJ” Atheists
I’ve had so many nice atheists on my channel through the years, and I’m thankful for all of you. Don’t ever get the idea that all atheists are nasty people. Some atheists are incredibly kind and respectful. Many of you have been so kind to me, and I’m not directing the last part of this article toward you.
However, someone left a comment about me on another YouTube channel, writing “what INTJ you know believes in the Bible? I’ve only met one in my life-who I dated for 2.5 years while in the military-and I’m pretty sure he was agnostic or atheist.”
It’s hard to argue with her incredible sample size, but I’ll name a few:
- Typologists claim that Isaac Newton, the father of science, was an INTJ. He formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, developed calculus, and contributed to many other fields. Despite some unorthodox views, he wrote more on the Bible than he did on science. In fact, Newton kept lists of his sins. Here are a couple of them from his published sin list:
- 17. Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer.
- 18. Denying that I did so.
- Newton even performed calculations from prophetic Bible passages and thought the world could end around year 2060. He once wrote, “About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies and insist on their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.”
- Martin Luther, the famous theologian, is also typed as INTJ by most typologist.
- CS Lewis, no relation to CS Joseph, is frequently listed as INTJ. He was a professor, novelists (Chronicles of Narnia), and a Christian apologist.
- Thom Rainer, pastor, author, and CEO of Christian Lifeway Resources, has typed as INTJ.
- Leslie J. Francis is an INTJ who publishes many articles through MBTI’s own organization (CPP, inc). He is Professor of Religions and Education at the University of Warwick, England. He received his Ph.D. and Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge, and his D.D. from the University of Oxford. He is an Anglican priest and Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
I could also cite countless posts from Quora, Reddit, and even YouTube for more evidence, aside from the studies I’ve already cited, but I think you get the point.
Granted, this is all nonsense pseudoscience based on occultism, so you could argue that any person is literally any type. Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear that many dogmatically religious individuals have typed as “INTJ.”
The Most Popular Logical Fallacy in the MBTI Community is…
The person who left the comment about me was using a logical fallacy known as the “No true Scotsman” fallacy, the most popular logical fallacy used in the typology community. She’s basically implying that I’m not a true INTJ, because no true INTJ could believe in Christianity or the Bible. Therefore, I must be a sensor of some kind.
Interestingly, the “No True Scotsman Fallacy” was coined by a man named Antony Flew. He spent most of his life arguing for atheism, but near the end of his life, he shocked his fellow atheists by revealing that he had abandoned atheism and believed in God. He later wrote a book entitled There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.
The YouTube commenter that I mentioned before also wrote,
“[INTJs] tend to be pretty non-conformist to things that are widely accepted by culture but can’t be argued rationally or proven empirically, and they are pretty unapologetic about it.”
Oh, you mean like how I’m unapologetically non-conformist about MBTI, which is widely accepted in culture but has no empirical evidence for the cognitive functions and has been called pseudoscience for decades by “rational” scientists?
- Psychometric specialist Robert Hogan wrote: “Most personality psychologists regard the MBTI as little more than an elaborate Chinese fortune cookie …”
- Psychologist Jordan Peterson called MBTI “Archaic and Invalid.”
- The atheists at RationalWiki.com aren’t too crazy about it, writing that “Though the MBTI is popular in schools and businesses, it’s disfavored by many in the psychological community for its low reliability and lack of external validity” […] “many skeptics consider the Myers-Briggs to be pseudoscience…”
- Even Wikipedia reads, “[MBTI] is commonly classified as pseudoscience, especially as it pertains to its supposed predictive abilities. (And if Wikipedia said it, it must be true!)
Let me clarify something. I’ve never claimed that I require empirical evidence to believe something to be true. There is a difference between science and religion.
Religion addresses questions that are beyond the reach of science, such as “Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? What happens after we die?”
Science seeks to understand the way the natural world works through testable explanations and predictions. MBTI and other typologists claim they’re using the “scientific method” or that their model is “scientifically valid and reliable.” Therefore, they should be held to the standards of science.
The problem is that people treat MBTI like a religion while treating religion like science.
This person who wrote the YouTube comment claims that the Bible has contradictions (it doesn’t), but she doesn’t have a problem with Jungian typology having contradictions. Jung changed his type at least 2-3 times.
In 1998, MBTI said INTJs have Fe in the tertiary position, but now they say we have Fi. Typologists have changed the personality types of celebrities more than I’ve change my underwear (and I’m very hygienic).
I could give you a small book of contradictions in the typology community. If you study Jungian typology, you don’t have a problem with contradictions!
Skeptics reject the Bible for its supernatural claims, but they have no problem with Jung getting the basis for his psychology from a supernatural spirit guide named Philemon, which Jung himself demanded was a “ghostly entity.”
Philemon referred to Jung as Christ, deified him, and Jung said that this spirit guide taught Buddha, Jesus, and all the great spiritual teachers in history all of their wisdom.
In fact, Jung said that when Philemon appeared to him, he could have become the next great prophet, but instead he opted to teach psychology to the world. (Isn’t Jung so humble?)
In conclusion, your four-letter personality code that you get from a Jungian-based test has no bearing on your religious beliefs. It has no bearing on your political beliefs. There are atheist, Christians, Buddhists, and all types that receive these four letters when taking a personality assessment.
I understand that some of you reading this article aren’t religious, and that’s okay. But don’t be a hypocrite and mock religion while believing in this foolish pseudoscience nonsense.
When you do that, you remind me of a woman I heard about: She ran into a psychiatrist’s office with a fried egg on her head and a strip of raw bacon over each ear. The psychologist jumped up and asked, “What’s wrong?!”
The woman replied, “I’m so glad you’re here, doctor! I need to talk to you about my brother. I think he might have some mental problems!”
Anyway, I hope this video clears up some stereotypes about Jungian typology. It’s pseudoscience that is based on Jung’s occultism, but these stereotypes are baseless and embarrassing.
References
- MBTI® Manual. Myers, Isabel Briggs, Mary H. McCaulley, Naomi L. Quenk and Allen L. Hammer. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc. Table on p. 238, “Top-Ranked Types Rating ‘No,’ ‘Not Sure,’ or ‘Yes’ Regarding Belief in a Higher Spiritual Power.”
- Francis, L.J., Butler, A., & Craig, C.L. (2005). Understanding the parochial church council: Dynamics of psychological type and ender. Contact, 147, 25-32.
- Francis, L.J., Barwick, J., & Craig, C.L. (2010). Pychological Type Preferences of Christian Groups: Comparisons with the UK Population NOrms. Journal of Psychological Type, Volume 70, 31-39.
- Matthew J. Baker & Mandy Robbins (2012) American on-line atheists and psychological type, Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 15:10, 1077-1084, DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2012.707433