I have a hard time defining "intellectual" to tell you the truth. Anyone anymore can write a book that uses big words that makes everyone think they're an intellectual, but sometimes when you dig through all the manure, there may not always be a pony.
A person can say nothing much with many impressive words. I know some polysyllabic words myself, and even what they mean, but I hardly fancy myself an intellectual.
If that word "intellectual" means someone who thinks they're smart enough to tell other people what to think and believe, well...the world is full of those kind of people, and some of them live at Brooklyn Bethel. Big whoop de doo.
As far as anthropologists can tell, modern humans have always been "religious" or prone to believe in some sort of supernatural element. For better or worse, it seems to be a human trait. Maybe we'll evolve out of it eventually, which would make sense if it's no longer useful trait, but those things take a long long time...in evolutionary psychological terms we still have Stone Age brains, or basically, the same brains that homo sapiens sapiens always had. The traits we have we have because they're of some use to us, psychological traits included.
I'm terribly curious why it is that people who have science degrees sometimes feel that gives them the task of explaining what is and isn't possible when it's impossible to determine exactly what is possible and impossible on some levels to the rest of us poor morons?
Do they really think it's time to quit examining the limits of the physical universe because they've got it all figured out, thanks very much? Sounds a bit limiting to me. Of course, I'm not a science person, what do I know?
Apparently not enough to reassure people that a metaphysical plane of existence isn't possible.