study finds religious people are less intelligent than atheists

[brainhulk]

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-peo...atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

What do you guys think?

 

[SlickSnake]

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-peo...atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

What do you guys think?

I don't think. Let me pray about it and get back to you.

 

[Jeff7]

I predict a calm and civilized discussion.



Somewhere on the Internet.

 

[Born2bwire]

I predict a calm and civilized discussion.



Somewhere on the Internet.

Lies, we can't even agree that cheesecake is obviously a pie.








You poopy pants you.

 

[Annisman*]

I choose to believe the Bible in which Jesus points out the falsity of the 'wisdom of the world' so I take this as a compliment. I'd much rather have my life in sync with my creator and his will for my life than to score well on an IQ test.

 

[Jeff7]

Lies, we can't even agree that cheesecake is obviously a pie.

It's almost as if the cheesecake is some kind of "missing link" between pie and cake.

Maybe it's the offspring of a pie and a cake, now sterile and unable to breed sexually, capable only of reproducing asexually, in a slow, cloned march toward extinction through genetic decay. :\

You poopy pants you.

:'(

 

[MrDudeMan]

Most of the smartest people I know are religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I haven't seen any correlation on a wide scale.

 

[noobsrevenge]

Most of the smartest people I know are religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I haven't seen any correlation on a wide scale.

Fail point. Your intelligence relative to the people you surround yourself with and their religious preference proves nothing.

Myself on the other hand, I am the smartest person I know and I am not religious, my less smart (relative to me) colleagues at work are also not religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I have seen correlation on a wide scale.

 

[Slew Foot]

You expect some guy who believes some magical flying mystery man farted out the universe in 6 days a few thousand years ago to have an ounce of smarts?

 

[Patranus]

Huh, I know 'intelligent' people with a multiple BA/BS + masters degrees + PhDs and they are some of the dumbest people I know.

By what do you measure 'intelligence'?

 

[MrDudeMan]

Fail point. Your intelligence relative to the people you surround yourself with and their religious preference proves nothing.

Myself on the other hand, I am the smartest person I know and I am not religious, my less smart (relative to me) colleagues at work are also not religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I have seen correlation on a wide scale.

Speaking of fail, your reading comprehension is pretty bad. It's especially bad if think you're the smartest person in your life. Either you're wrong and you're actually an idiot, or everyone around you is so dumb that you have no basis for comparison, which makes you a fool.

1) I don't surround myself with people at work. I'm forced to work with them.

2) I work with a ton of religious people who are, by all normal metrics, very intelligent. I'm also an intelligent person, so I'm not perceiving them to be much smarter from a position of ignorance. The average person I work with graduated at or near the top of their class and has at least a four year engineering degree - most of which have a masters or PhD. By any classification these people are intelligent, yet most believe in some flavor of deity. This ratio is consistent with my life experience living in the US. I've lived in every corner of the country.

Calling yourself the smartest person you know calls your intelligence into question, by the way. Most intelligent people realize there's always someone who is even smarter and probably not far away unless you live in a tiny town. Also, you seem to be correlating your position in life with intelligence whereas I was merely mentioning it being a requirement for working in a particular industry. Understanding the difference is important, but that tends to come with age and wisdom, so you're either young or extremely arrogant.

 

[QueBert]

Fail point. Your intelligence relative to the people you surround yourself with and their religious preference proves nothing.

Myself on the other hand, I am the smartest person I know and I am not religious, my less smart (relative to me) colleagues at work are also not religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I have seen correlation on a wide scale.

wide scale being the people at the company you work for, and maybe the people you know outside of work? Not what I'd consider wide scale at all.

I know people who are religious and I know atheists, and from my observation people can be intelligent or dumb irregardless of they believe in God, or they believe people who believe in God are morons. Although I've only paid attention to a few thousand people in my life, so I'm not going to proclaim my hypothesis is based on anything close to wide scale findings.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Huh, I know 'intelligent' people with a multiple BA/BS + masters degrees + PhDs and they are some of the dumbest people I know.

By what do you measure 'intelligence'?

A good point. Intelligence is often associated with the things you mentioned (I also mentioned this in my post), but those things aren't reliable indicators. For the purposes of the study, though, the things you mentioned are relevant. That doesn't necessarily mean anything in reality, though.

 

[Patranus]

A good point. Intelligence is often associated with the things you mentioned (I also mentioned this in my post), but those things aren't reliable indicators. For the purposes of the study, though, the things you mentioned are relevant. That doesn't necessarily mean anything in reality, though.

After browsing the full article it is apparent that the author correlates 'intelligence' with 'scientists'.

The only data related to IQ was a measurement of how 'religious' the participants were over time in a very suspect manner.

 

[hans030390]

I choose to believe the Bible in which Jesus points out the falsity of the 'wisdom of the world' so I take this as a compliment. I'd much rather have my life in sync with my creator and his will for my life than to score well on an IQ test.

"Don't listen to what outsiders say because you might realize none of this makes sense, lose your faith, and go to hell!"

I think this is a common idea (rather, threat) seen in most religions. I'm not going to buy it from one religion if I don't buy it from any other religion. Why do you choose to follow one religion/threat over tens, hundreds, or thousands of others religions/threats?

Also, let's support the claims of the Bible with...the Bible! Yeah! Or, wait, no. That's not right. Personal faith and/or the faith of others can't support it either. Again, the fact that there are so many other lines of religious thinking in the world more likely support the idea that none of the religions are "right" than support one single religion as "right." Also, there have been studies done about "religious experiences" that reaffirm people's faith. It's just brain trickery. Some scientist(s) actually developed a helmet that would stimulate areas of the brain, and the test subjects had very strong religious-like experiences. Really, there is almost no way to support or prove any religion, so I'll pass. Already wasted 19 years of my life on that nonsense.

I also found it humorous how quickly doubters (most likely religious folk) strike down this study (which looked at 63 other studies) just based on the article alone. While the question of how intelligence is measured (obviously the article doesn't go into detail about this at all) is a valid question, you should be looking into the study instead of quickly dismissing it. If anything, such dismissive behavior just confirms the study's findings...

Regarding the measurement of intelligence, the methods used were almost assuredly touched on in the 63 studies. If the techniques and methods are mentioned and described, the study has some sort of validity even if the measures used aren't perfect. I would also guess that scientists have techniques to measure intelligence that go far beyond things like an IQ test. A friend of mine best described is as studying culture. What is culture? How do you define it? It's a rather abstract concept, like intelligence, but yet we also recognize what it is. If a culture study specifies what aspects and elements of culture it's looking at, that gives validity to the study even if it isn't perfect. This is true even if YOU don't agree with or "like" (or, often, don't fully comprehend) their techniques.

Lastly, I don't think the study said you can't be religious and extremely intelligence. There is simply a correlation in that more intelligent people are less likely to be religious. The study didn't make you any dumber or smarter based on your beliefs.

Everyone thinks they're right or at least know better than those that disagree. One side just tries to stay better informed about the world, existence, life, and reality.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Id say that it's pretty dumb to post this yet again and again.

 

[Angry Irishman]

You expect some guy who believes some magical flying mystery man farted out the universe in 6 days a few thousand years ago to have an ounce of smarts?

Not necessarily but they may practice better judgement than you or may perhaps even try to have some tolerance. It really depends on the person regardless of ideals...to each their own.

 

[Mixolydian]

this is news?

 

[Broheim]

I don't find this the least bit surprising.

 

[Broheim]

Most of the smartest people I know are religious and I work in a very competitive technology industry where intelligence is highly valued. With that said, I haven't seen any correlation on a wide scale.

maybe they're more "yeah, I pray to Jebus on the black Sabbath, allah snackbar!"

to avoid the wrath of religious people.

 

[justoh]

duh

 

[Doppel]

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-peo...atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

What do you guys think?

I think I like numbers and the ones there were lacking and/or vague.

I had hoped/expected to see something along the lines of IQ scores or zealots vs atheists and how they perform on certain tests.

I suppose some could interpret these results to say that smart people are more likely to be successful against their peers, and rise above them, and this encourages a self-confidence and narcissism that excludes their perceived need to defer to a higher being.

 

[hans030390]

You would probably have to read the study the article refers to AND all 60+ studies this new study...studied...in order to get all the details, methods, and numbers you're looking for.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Everyone is dumber than those who believe in the one true faith. Ra'men

 

[mistercrabby]

Sort of an interesting foot note article. Takes a very complicated topic and largely dumbs it down to gifted or not gifted, religeous or not religeous. It doesn't seem to be answering anything important, and has the effect of further dividing people across those dimensions. In fact, neither axis has bearing on whether someone is a good person.