Christians are smarter than your average Atheist?

Question

I thought I'd just make an abitrary unjustified statement about atheists and their intellect. I think Christians are just smarter than your average Atheist and that's why they have everything figured out.

See how unreasonable this arguement sounds? Why do non-Christians keep saying Christians are simply stupid? You claim to be so knowledgable in science so here's your chance. Show me some real credible scientific data showing Christians are below the average learning curve. What studies have you done? How in the world did you measure it?

Or are you just arbitrarily spreading bigoted hate for Christians?

Spooky: Thank you. I agree with you completely. I don't mean to bash all Atheists here just the ones that openly call Christians stupid.

Still waiting on those credible statistics (finding a random website is in no way credible)

Answer 1

There are statistics that suggest that. You can find them somewhere on the internet. I've seen them before.

Frankly all I think it shows is that people of average intellect are likely to 'gravitate' towards theism. It doesn't really mean that atheists are smarter...

Answer 2

Josh, It is that kind of talk that destroys what christians are doing in the name of the Lord by way of their witnessing to the non believers.

God does not want His followers to share His word in insults or hate, because there is no hate or insult in the word of God. Show the lost, non believer the love that God has for them. They are not stupid, and Christians are not smarter than a non believer, but us Christians have had our eyes opened up to God's truth, where as the non believer is still being held captive in the total darkness of satan and his lies.

That so called " bigoted hate for Christians" comes when people post things like your post, that is totally done against what God teaches. The word if God is shared in love, and if someone does not accept it, then we are to shake the dust from our feat and leave them alone.

Matthew 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

I am a born again Chrsitian and I do not support your way of preaching and I can assure you that God does not either.

Answer 3

Religion has absolutely nothing to do with intellect. You are right in your statement, but keep in mind the Christians on here can be just as insulting and hateful as anyone.

Answer 4

What world are you living in? If you are a Christian, then you should know that Christians do not have "it all" figured out.

Ecclesiastes 8:17
"then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."

Do not try to squash stereotypes of Christians by stereotyping Non-Christians.

Answer 5

STUDIES OF STUDENTS

1. Thomas Howells, 1927
Study of 461 students showed religiously conservative students "are, in general, relatively inferior in intellectual ability."

2. Hilding Carlsojn, 1933
Study of 215 students showed that "there is a tendency for the more intelligent undergraduate to be sympathetic toward… atheism."

3. Abraham Franzblau, 1934
Confirming Howells and Carlson, tested 354 Jewish children, aged 10-16. Found a negative correlation between religiosity and IQ as measured by the Terman intelligence test.

4. Thomas Symington, 1935
Tested 400 young people in colleges and church groups. He reported, "There is a constant positive relation in all the groups between liberal religious thinking and mental ability… There is also a constant positive relation between liberal scores and intelligence…"

5. Vernon Jones, 1938
Tested 381 students, concluding "a slight tendency for intelligence and liberal attitudes to go together."

6. A. R. Gilliland, 1940
At variance with all other studies, found "little or no relationship between intelligence and attitude toward god."

7. Donald Gragg, 1942
Reported an inverse correlation between 100 ACE freshman test scores and Thurstone "reality of god" scores.

test
scores 100
50%
119
80%
%
rank
test rank test rank
believers non-believers
8. Brown and Love, 1951
At the University of Denver, tested 613 male and female students. The mean test scores of non-believers was 119 points, and for believers it was 100. The non-believers ranked in the 80th percentile, and believers in the 50th. Their findings "strongly corroborate those of Howells."

9. Michael Argyle, 1958
Concluded that "although intelligent children grasp religious concepts earlier, they are also the first to doubt the truth of religion, and intelligent students are much less likely to accept orthodox beliefs."

10. Jeffrey Hadden, 1963
Found no correlation between intelligence and grades. This was an anomalous finding, since GPA corresponds closely with intelligence. Other factors may have influenced the results at the University of Wisconsin.

11. Young, Dustin and Holtzman, 1966
Average religiosity decreased as GPA rose.

12. James Trent, 1967
Polled 1400 college seniors. Found little difference, but high-ability students in his sample group were over-represented.

13. C. Plant and E. Minium, 1967
The more intelligent students were less religious, both before entering college and after 2 years of college.

14. Robert Wuthnow, 1978
Of 532 students, 37 percent of Christians, 58 percent of apostates, and 53 percent of non-religious scored above average on SATs.

15. Hastings and Hoge, 1967, 1974
Polled 200 college students and found no significant correlations.

mean
SATs 1022
1108
1119
1148

group religious slightly
anti-
religious moderately
anti-
religious strongly
anti-
religious
16. Norman Poythress, 1975
Mean SATs for strongly anti-
religious (1148), moderately anti-religious (1119), slightly anti-religious (1108), and religious (1022).

17. Wiebe and Fleck, 1980
Studied 158 male and female Canadian university students. They reported "nonreligious S's tended to be strongly intelligent" and "more intelligent than religious S's."


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Answer 6

Albert Einstein, possibly the smartest man in history was not a Christian. He did not believe in any religious Gods either. He believed in science and reason, like most atheist. They follow the rules of logic, not faith. Faith is used when evidence is lacking.

Christians are ignorant when it comes to their religious beliefs. For some reason, they are able to disregard reason when it comes to supporting their beliefs in their doctrines. Just like many other defense mechanisms used by all of us on various issues inside of our minds. We believe what we want to believe no matter how unreasonable it is; if it supports what makes us feel good and comfortable in our heads.

Answer 7

I never said christians are stupid. They are narrow-minded 9 times out of 10 though.


before someone says that it means the same thing, Narrow-minded is where you believe in one view only and won't even listen to other people's views.

Answer 8

Why are you just arbitrarily spreading bigoted hate for atheists? Such generalizations do no good, but you already knew that.

Answer 9

Atheists IQ is how do you say negative I gave a test to 100 Atheists last week and they were all negative.

Answer 10

Josh, this is just the atheists way of trying to make himself feel good about his own hopelessness. In the atheist's mindset, he is god. It is all about him. There is precious little room for the living God in there.

Don't sweat it!