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Erroneous scientific studies: Religious peopl


PetriFB

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This is a dangerous subject to get into., as ranking people by some measure of their intelligence is repugnant to me.

I think this study says more about people in general than whether they choose athiesm over religion. Is it a sign of greater intelligence to think for yoursef or to accept what you are told, for instance? I'm not sure this is the case.

As some studies demonstrate, intelligence is mainly inherited. If thiis is true, then is it more likely that a person with lower than average intelligence would find it easier to accept what that person is told than to make this decision for themself independantly?

I'm not sure that this is the case, as there are many factors besides intelligence that may cause someone to choose atheism over religion, or religion over athiesm. I don't think choosing one or the other has much to do with someone's intelligence, it's a complex issue that doesn't depend on only one aspect of a person's personality.

This reminds me of the controversial book, "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, published in1994. The controversial part was the ranking of intelligence by race.

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Just as I try to warn my atheist friends, I'd also try to caution you, personal experience can not be generalised out to an entire population. Numerous studies have shown that atheists score higher in intelligence on average. This is just the latest one, and we see the religious trying to counter this with a variety of hand waving.

Now, in my opinion this has more to do with numbers. There are far more religious people than atheists, and therefore you have a smaller sample sized compared to the religious.

Take into account that unlike the general population, scientists and intellectuals are more likely to be non-religious (or non-conventionally religious, in the sense their religious beliefs, no matter what label they claim, do not match the general dogma among the lay members or of it's church.

Looking at the smaller sample size and the higher proportion of intellectuals, when in comparison to the public, it's not a suprise that atheists tend to have higher intelligence than religious people.

Now, we can argue about personal experiences, and if you want I can provide far more personal experience with highly educated atheists, and poorly educated theists, but I can also point to very stupid atheists and intelligent theists. (Admittedly my bias is far more to one than the other.)

And with this we have to remember again, Christians make up something like 73% of the overall population of the US, while atheists generally bounce around 1-3%, depending on how the numbers are represented. The actual population is probably higher, but gets confused depending on how they exactly identify.

So simply due to numbers, you are going to encounter more theists than atheists in any particular field of study up to a certain level of education, where the numbers sharply decline on the religious side and increase on the atheist side.

In my own experience, those very-well educated and intelligent theists were barely religious.

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Is there a difference between intellect and intelligence? Intellect being logical thought, Intelligence being a sane and healthy intellectual and emotional response to one's self and one's environment. I think one's intellectual prowess has little to do with appropriate and moral behavior.

This is one reason categorizing people by IQ-type intelligence is not a productive method for judging people's worth in society. What is important is how people behave, whether they are atheists or religious.

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"Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it'll go its entire life thinking its an idiot"

Edited by Aus Der Box Skeptisch
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"Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it'll go its entire life thinking its an idiot"

"Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it'll go its entire life thinking its an idiot"

I know a fish that can climb trees.
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In my own experience, those very-well educated and intelligent theists were barely religious.

Right, I think I mentioned that those people who are highly educated or are very intelligent, tend to have beleifs that don't match the accepted dogma of the religion.

The fellow who hosts the show that I get invited onto identifies as Christian, but due to his understanding of history and linguistics cannot take the Old Testament seriously as a historical or moral account. Even the New Testament he has issues with in terms of accuracy, however he still feels Jesus was god incarnate.

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Is there a difference between intellect and intelligence? Intellect being logical thought, Intelligence being a sane and healthy intellectual and emotional response to one's self and one's environment. I think one's intellectual prowess has little to do with appropriate and moral behavior.

Again, and I know the study wasn't linked in this thread but it's pretty much all over the internet at this point, they were looking at logical and analytical thought. Those that think that way tend to be better represented in higher forms of education and have been linked to less religion.

And moral/ethical behavior was not the focus of this study. However studies have been done and shown that countries with higher religiosity have greater violence and social ills than those without, though I think that's been linked more to the general feeling of insecurity in a country that has a lot of violence and cultural ills in it, than caused by religion.

This is one reason categorizing people by IQ-type intelligence is not a productive method for judging people's worth in society. What is important is how people behave, whether they are atheists or religious.

It'd be interesting to note that those countries with lower religiosity have been stated as treating it's citizens more humanely and equally. Though before running with this, keep in mind these are correlation studies and are not showing causation.

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Right, I think I mentioned that those people who are highly educated or are very intelligent, tend to have beleifs that don't match the accepted dogma of the religion.

The fellow who hosts the show that I get invited onto identifies as Christian, but due to his understanding of history and linguistics cannot take the Old Testament seriously as a historical or moral account. Even the New Testament he has issues with in terms of accuracy, however he still feels Jesus was god incarnate.

My brother-in-law is a Christian. He studied at Berkeley and USC with an MBA. And he always tells me how religious people tend to be under-educated. I am not surprised by his opinion because he is a VP at a real estate firm specialized in low income households. Often he has to do footwork. His experiences with the tenants certainly formed his opinion on highly religious people.

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In regards to the correlation between the religiosity of regions and violence: could it be possible that the extreme and constant violence may drive people to faith? One might find comfort in a somewhat stable faith with a world of chaos spinning around them.

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Erroneous scientific studies: Religious people are less intelligent than atheists

In America Rochester's university has been made scientific studies and analysis led by Professor Miron Zuckerman, which claims that religious people are less intelligent than non-believers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Review published a summary for this scientific study. When I researched this study, so on my mind arose many thoughts that prove this scientific study as the provocation of atheism in which they show their contempt to the certain group of the people. On my writing, I also bring out some thoughts about the article of Knoxnews.

The whole article is in my site: http://www.kotipetri...ndatheists.html

well, I remember when I was really into Christianity and would go to the Christian stores all the time, I remember that all their artwork was lame and that their concordances would be inaccurate etc... their music section would be small and rarely would you find a good CD. Most of the works that were successful, if traced back to the source, would be the work of evil doers in the name of God and many Christian followers would just ho-dunk along like it was the greatest thing ever, even though it wasn't. So I do think that there are a lot of dumb Christians, but at the same time Atheists are lacking an ability to understand certain things, despite their abilities to do other certain things that may attribute to smartness. Intelligence really is in the eye of the beholder, there isn't a way to equate it at all especially when we are dealing with spiritual matters, which does include morality. A baby could be quite a bit smarter that a grown up, depending on how you look at it. Please don't get me wrong. I know there are a lot of brilliant people all over the map, but what is real intelligence? That is the question here I think.

**

I think Atheist hide behind what they think is intelligence. No matter what we call ourselves, humans have the tendencies to be followers. Christians follow other Christians and Atheists (potentially) follow the world. A free thinker, an experimenter, a truth teller, a do-gooder and a person who knows the value of love and lives according to his true nature (not afraid to perform his natural talents) is the most intelligent.

**

was tipsy when i wrote this, but I did try to be honest.

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In regards to the correlation between the religiosity of regions and violence: could it be possible that the extreme and constant violence may drive people to faith? One might find comfort in a somewhat stable faith with a world of chaos spinning around them.

Except we have a very solid example of where other factors being equal with first world nations, violence is still linked to religiosity, and that's here in the US. It's an outlier in that regard.

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Very likely, the major drivers of violence worldwide might not be religions but realpolitik coupled with nationalism, political ideologies, etc. Possibly, the most prominent includes a financial elite using economic policies and military forces to control resources in various countries or establish strategic advantages.

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