Is there a corelation between the bible belt and low SAT scores?

Question

The lowerst SAT scores come from the South. The states that rank lowest in Education also rank highest in Believing in the bible. Could it be that people in the south spend too much time reading one book instead of any other book? Or is it that they're not intelligent in general?

Answer 1

The deal is that Christianity actually causes people to be accepting and not to stand up for what they believe in, they mass knowledge and when tests come they don't have that shared knowledge and do miserably. I am an intelligent young woman who lives in the south and have seen and felt it....you won't believe me unless you live here all your life but people in the south are born with a strange connection (might be all that closely connected blood) and thoughts are thought at the same time.......also, if you think loudly, people's hand will shoot up with your answer, it's truley an amazing phenomenon.

Answer 2

It's not that they lack intelligence. If your sources are accurate(which you did not link), then you should look at other factors, such as: -the quality of teachers each school district has for the core subjects that are measured on the SAT.
-The amount of well paying jobs in these areas which will demand qualified applicants (high school graduates)that have a post secondary degree.
-Where you have low expectations in education, you will most likely have dropouts, which is also affected by the home-life of the child. If the child has no support structure because of a one parent family where the parent is always away at work, the child does not have support and enough supervision. If parents do not value education, it is most likely that the children will not either.

The corelation between christianity and scholastic achievment does not wash. Mainly because those who are really biblically based and home school their children score higher on the SAT on average than those in secular schools.

Christianity founded many unversities since the 1500's. This type of educational scholarship is the one that is still used today in even secular schools which focuses on the growth of the whole person.
Reading the Bible, being a Christian and having low SAT scores do not a corelation make.

The factors that you should look at are regional, economic, ethnic (which contributes to cultural and language barriers) and social/family structure.

Still another way to look at this:
Could it be that the people who are on the poor side enrich their lives through their spirituality? Maybe they have their priorities on their creator instead of how creative they can be with the continuous persuit of materialism.

Answer 3

I see where you're coming from, but I don't believe that.
It goes by district, not by state.
For example, I lived in South Carolina for almost four years. The town I lived in was VERY religious. Nearly everyone I knew went to church, and we learned about the Bible in public school.
I was in for a shock when I moved to California, and they were learning stuff in third grade that I had learned in first grade.
To make my adjustment to the "secular" west coast worse, I was the smartest student not only in my class, but in my whole GRADE.
So intelligence has nothing to do with whether a person will choose faith, science or both. There are some VERY intelligent Christians out there, just as there are many intelligent atheists. The opposite is also true.
So, no. It may SEEM that there's a correlation, but low SAT scores come from less funding, not as a result of religion or lack thereof.

Answer 4

As a gay man living in the South I must acquiesce that both answers apply. Without the knowledge and the ability to develop individual thought that is inspired by reading other works of literature one cannot derive the meaning one is supposed to get from reading the Bible. It is a guide, not a rule book.

Answer 5

First that was really hateful, and demeaning. This area is very rural and schooling is difficult. However, we are solving the problem and if you look the grades are coming up. They had towns with maybe a high school class of 12 to 16 students.
So the one teacher had to teach all four grades. Which made it next to impossible. Now all the students have computers and learn by computer. The grades have come up and also their SAT scores. The teacher told me that actually in practical knowledge they excelled from some of the students in the big cities. They don't go to college simply to learn. They go into votech and learn a trade in less than two years and start working.
They are not drunken fratt boys. But hard working farm boys.
Who learn agriculture and farming. Women learn nursing and bookkeeping. We do just fine. Most of the food on your table comes from here. Try living without us.

Answer 6

heavily..."Lolita"? Did they have tell the government approximately that...get some adult men from Dateline checking those adult men out for figuring out on that as considered one of their well-liked books....suspicious as hell! besides, there could quite be a tertiary component in this, and that's hasty to end something from this (correlation does not recommend causation and all that). If I have been to invest, i could say that people who scored bigger on the SATs would have basically basically been uncovered to extra books, and hence did no longer think of to place the Bible as between the thoughts. Or that people who scored bigger prioritize academics to spirituality, and hence have an much less complicated time excelling.

Answer 7

mythology can be used to teach, but we also need an education...

since I was from the bible belt, and yes they did discourage me to get an education out of not being able to control what I was taught and graded upon (lots of secular education) my scores also reflect my upbringing in scholastics

my english, math and common sense have been retarded but my knowledge about the inner workings of these cults is the flip side

I am currently in school (now also out of religion, the "Rapture Bus" never came) and it's like starting over and being 20 years behind your peers

I think there is a DIRECT correlation between belief and education scores

we are told how much more important the things of God are compared to 'the devil' and his world

I now see this world as neither heavenly or hellish, it's just what we make it and like Gilgamesh epic of Mesopotamia...

my goal is just to make this place a better place to live

Certain myths are all but universal, and their extensive distribution attests to their great antiquity. The best example of this is the famous Flood myth. The Flood story recorded in the Bible was by no means original with the ancient Hebrews, but was derived by them from the earlier Gilgamesh Epic of the Babylonians. But the Babylonian version in turn drew on a pre-existing Flood myth that no doubt went back thousands of years earlier. So old is the Flood myth, in fact, that it has had a chance to diffuse far and wide. Indeed, it is known to practically every human society from aboriginal Australia to Tierra del Fuego.

Answer 8

Have you not seen in the bible God chooses the simpler things in this life to make them Great, I think this means people to. Look at the people Christ chose to be the teachers of Christianity. They were unlearned men, and they turned out to be the Greatest men of all time,, next to Christ of course.Country people are the closest to God, it is a simple fact. We are truly thankful to God for choosing us out of this sinful world. AND yes we are intelligent,we will be deciding your fate one of these great days, will you think we are dumb, when you are begging us dumb old southern,Christians to ask God to have mercy on you smart city people?

Answer 9

Well I live in the South and where I stay we take the ACT not the SAT.

(Won't respond to the rest, I try not to entertain ignorance)

Answer 10

A scientist you are not. Start with a basic stats class it should help.