William Shockley, one of the primary inventors of the first practical transistor, was basically a Nazi, as was Henry Ford. Thomas Edison tried to build a radio to talk to ghosts. Nikola Tesla claimed his inventions were channeled in dreams. Jack Parsons, one of the key rocket scientists of the early space age and the primary inventor of modern solid fuel boosters, was a follower of Aliester Crowley who tried to invoke supernatural entities with sex magic while high on peyote. I know two biology Ph.D's who are Biblical-literalist 6000 year creationists, and one of the most brilliant artists and writers I've met thinks we faked the Moon landing. In the Silicon Valley orbit I've met many neo-reactionaries and neo-fascists and on the flip side people who are so "woke" they see every human interaction in terms of racial and cultural power dynamics. I've met yet more engineers who are into occultism, ghost hunting, and... I could do this for a long time.

In my experience the more intelligent a person is the more likely they are to believe bizarre and extremely heterodox things.

One of my issues with the modern skeptic movement has always been how they try to whitewash the history of science and engineering and forget about all the wild ass shit all these people believed (and that present-day scientists and engineers believe when you get a few beers into them).