Are atheists intellectually superior to Christians?

Answer 1

Some atheists may be, while in other cases it may be the other way around. It depends on the person.

Personally, I'd rather be a good person than an intellectual one.

One doesn't have to be a smart person to be a good one. But it takes a lot of smarts to be a bad person.

I'm not saying that I think atheists are automatically bad people for being atheists. I'm just saying that goodness of character is more important than intellectual prowess.

Answer 2

I don't know. Maybe not intellectually superior, but there seem to be more open-minded atheists than Christians. If that would mean they were intellectually superior, then so be it.

Answer 3

It's like any population, you've got your brilliant ones, the wankers, and your complete dolts/"mouth breathers". THIS APPLIES TO BOTH sides of the fence.

Both can be just as rabid, intellectual, militant, and pathetic. I know this for fact because I've been on Answers for quite a while and I've seen the questions and even cringed at some of the answers.

Both theists and atheists are equalled in this respect.

Answer 4

Mostly... or on average... yes. There are about 20 studies, conducted over a period of 80 years, that reveal a statistically significant NEGATIVE correlation between intelligence and religiosity. In plainer language, they found that the more intelligent a person is, the LESS likely he is to be religious.

If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Intelligence tests mainly provide an indication of reasoning ability and problem solving ability... critical thought. These are the very qualities that see through religion, and recognize it for what it is; i.e., religion cannot survive the glaring light of reason and critical thought. This was well understood by important figures in religious history. This is why the early church destroyed all the writings that were in conflict with dogma, such as Greek philosophical, medical and mathematical knowledge... which led directly to the Dark Ages.

Just to illustrate the point, let's see what Martin Luther, the 'father' of protestantism, had to say about it:

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason... Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther

So, you see... religion is nothing more than a business... in fact, it is the world's longest running and most successful Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scam. But, it only works on those who are dumb enough to fall for it. However, there are a lot more people who DON'T know how to think than there are people who DO know how to think. That is why there are a lot more religious people in the USA than there are 'tree-thinkers'... including Atheists.

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"Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered." ~ Victor J. Stenger


"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure."  ~ Harvard Lamphoon, "Doon" (paraphrase)

Answer 5

Perhaps, but what good does it do you? Becoming an atheist simply because they are intellectually superior won't make you intellectually superior.

Answer 6

No, because nothing is really superior or more important than anything else. Atheists and christians both have ideas about god, but when they say it is this or that they both take on a kind of arrogance to. It is unfair to say that there is no god, because we do not know (which is why I think god is a synonomous term with "existence" "being" or "reality"). And if you believe there is a god (as if it were a person) it is also just as arrogant because, remember, no one knows.

Answer 7

Only by a factor of 10^100 or so.
Of course, it's not really a fair comparison because to be a Christian you have to switch your brain to the 'off' position and then start blindly quoting the bible when asked a question (any question whatsoever). Maybe they are just dumb in the first place and that's why they were attracted to Christianity - a natural fit.

Answer 8

Neither one is intellectually superior to the other. One has nothing to do with the other. Both are equally intellegent. Just because on does not believe in God does not deminish their intellegents or mke them more intellegent. And the other way around.

Answer 9

Not necessarily. Faith or lack of it doesn't have an effect on intellect.

There are lots of intellectuals out there who do believe in God, especially in the case of C.S. Lewis, the atheist-turned-Christian who became an Oxford theologian.

Answer 10

Intellectually superior???
oxymoron