Why Do Some Atheists Say They Are Smarter Than Christians?

Question

do atheists go to different schools?
do Christian and atheist scientists hypothesize cures for diseases differently using different pieces of technology?
Do they think Christians reason everything as a result of God and never research cures, create technology, analyze perplex equations with scientifical thought?
does Christianity make one's IQ lower than an atheist automatically?
Christians don't think and receive higher education?

I didn’t know religious affiliation determines your intellect acumen. I thought it was education......where does this intellectual supremacy come from?

keyword: *some atheists*

ok this question was not meant for abuse. it's a curious legitimate question. i want to know why some atheists refer themselves to be intellectually superior and on what grounds.

Answer 1

Judging from the Atheists that I have talked to, they would respond that they are smarter because they don't follow what some book tells them to do, and they dont believe in a higher power just because someone scares them into it. While that might make them a bit more logical, it certainly doesn't make them any more intelligent. You are completely right on every point!

Answer 2

To say 'All atheists are smarter than all Christians' is wrong and egotistical. Yet, I've seen some atheists make that very claim just because they don't see the superstitions they all hold to. Like it or not, superstitions don't necessary show up through divine intervension -- anyone with enough basic psychology to have taken learning and conditioning course work will realize that all humans have superstitions of some sort or another, even if they recognize them and feel 'silly' performing them.

However, statistically speaking, if you were to take a group of 100 randomly selected atheists and a group of 100 randomly selected Christans and take their average IQ's, the atheists would win that measure. There have been multiple studies to support this; I'm hoping you'll get some links from others because I don't have any off hand.

Also, if you were to take a similar sample from both atheists and Christians, and count the number of Doctorates, Masters, and Bacchelaureatte degrees held, the atheist group would (again, statistically speaking, not absolutely) have a higher number of degrees in general, and a higher proportion of the degrees would be above the bacchelaureatte degree. This also has been tested multiple times in multiple studies, but again, I don't have available links and hope someone else can provide such.

None of this means that there are no highly intelligent Christians or highly stupid atheists. As groups of humans, we are both subject to the best and the worst of humanity. It just seems, purely statistically speaking and not absolutely speaking, that the group of atheists tends to get a slightly higher portion of the cream of the crop and a slightly lower portion of the chaff.

However, it is not that religious affiliation determines your acumen. This is to place the effect before the cause. Religion, like it or not, by defintition is predicated on emotional knowing as opposed to intellectual knowing. You may have to apply reason and logic to interpret the holy texts, but the 'knowing' of the truth of the text is one of faith. This runs counter to complex analysis and logic. In this, Martin Luther was actually quite before his time in recognizing, "Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spritual things, but--more frequently than not --struggles against the Divine Word...."

It is not the attributes of religion that make the attributes of intellegence less likely, but the attributes of intelligence that make the attributes of religion less likely.

Answer 3

I think you're putting up a straw man. Can you provide evidence of an atheist who believes religious affiliation determines intellect acumen? An atheist saying "I'm smarter than Christians" does not necessarily mean that he/she thinks religious affiliation determines intellect acumen. The person would probably mean that he/she is more rational and empirical, at least when it comes to examining Christianity.

Answer 4

Well yes, a lot of Christians do actually go to different schools, ever heard of such a thing called a Christian School? I've gone to one or two in the past, and they do not teach much science. The reason Atheists think they are smarter in general is because they do know more about science then most Christians. Most scientists, like 98% are Atheists.

I do not believe that ones choice of religion (or lack of) effects IQ, no.

Answer 5

I think it comes from the notion that people with religious faith are hampered, by an externally imposed set of preconceptions, from seeking accurate knowledge about the world. (In other words, God said all wigets are red, so if I see a green widget, I'm mistaken, end of investigation.)

Many Christians equate revelation with knowledge. We all tend to accept something we've read as "true" without verifying it because we don't have the time and because most things that are published turn out to be true enough.

But we do need to verify once in a while, just to keep our reality straight. The interesting thing about a belief system is that the windows are tinted to explain our experiences in terms compatible with the belief system. But if you step outside, the experiences don't always match the explanation. Most atheists accuse believers of never stepping outside to verify. Of course those outside immediately start constructing a new belief system that accommodates the new information.

An honest atheist admits that every belief system, even a non-theistic one, is an interpretation and compromise with truth, a way to deal with information overflow. Such people don't claim to know "more", only to know that they are aware of the limitatuons of their knowledge, unlike those who are absolutely positive about their "knowledge". Many people are uncomfortable with such uncertainty and they tend to be believers (with a few anti-believers too).

"Stupid" is an effective, dismissive epithet, overused by those who are tired of arguing. For the most part, I don't think atheists think believers are unintelligent or unanalytical. But many do think the biases of theism are a hobble to true scientific inquiry, that religion produces a type of intellectual superstition.

Answer 6

Peace!
Atheists who say that are probably insecure or too proud to admit that some Christians may be more intelligent than him. What I have found out is this: The more educated a person becomes the more difficult it is for him to believe in God. Wisdom, especially the type that wants to play god is dangerous. "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." - 1 Cor. 1, 19

Answer 7

Thank you for saying *some atheists*. I was raised in a christian family. And no, I didn't go to a different school. I don't think I am smarter. I just came to a different conclusion thatn alot of other people and it works for me. Every person has to choose what works or doesn't work for themselves. Others can't do it for us.

Answer 8

Ive wondered this myself, and as you said, it is "some" atheists, not all. Some atheists make it sound like we didn't graduate high school right along with them, attend college right along with them, work the same jobs as they do etc.

I graduated from Rutgers University with my Bachelors in Business Administration. There were Christians, Atheists and people of all faiths there and their religious background (whether they had one or not) had no bearing on how well they did.

Answer 9

I'm a Christian, so I probably "can't answer this question". But I'll take an educated guess : I suppose atheists think in the more realistic sense, so they seem more "educated" then "dreamy" like Christians sometimes can be. =]

Answer 10

Because some atheists *are* smarter than Christians, irregardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof. There are many intelligent Christians in the world, just as there are intelligent people in every religion or race.