Can we make mankind greater than it is?

Question

I'm just wondering - how much would the average IQ rise if we killed all the fundamentalists.

Different question - if we killed everyone with below average intelligence - would religion survive in anything like its current form?

No it wouldnt 'arewethereyet' - my own iq is about 145 last time I checked. I could have said kill everyone under 120 but it would nice to still be noticeably above average.

LOL
The president of the US is a christian... lol... you are joking, arent you? George Bush has no use at all other than clearly showing our evolutionary relationship with chimpanzees.

OK forget killing - imagine instead sterilisation, inhuman too but this is a gedanken or thought experiment more than anything else. Many answerers seem to be rejecting the continually proven inverse correlation between intelligen and education on one hand and religion on the other.

OK now people are complaining about iq - ok I mean g - general cognitive ability, OK though thats harder to test for.

It would be a nice proof of evolution if nothing else, wouldn't it?

Answer 1

You may be demonstrating why the "rapture" theory exists. It is a seductive idea - a Grand Sorting, if you will, and it would appeal to those who have reached a certain level of frustration. But leaving emotion out of it, and dealing only with the question:

It would rise, and religion would not survive in any form, but ONLY if we were dealing with emotional intelligence, not intellectual intelligence. In other words, IQ might not be the best determining factor. Hawkins, when asked his IQ, said that those who talk about their IQs don't really have very high ones; in other words, it isn't valid enough to really say anything. Psychological health would be a better determinant, how connected to reality people are, is there delusion, is there denial, is the brain functioning properly, or have thought processes been altered through conditioning? If so, is there any hope of rehabilitation? If so, how to go about it? Eliminating mental illness is the direction such a process would take, because it is in the nature of the scientist to look for ways to preserve and improve life. Automatically, a rational member of our species will reject genocide as not helpful in promoting the advancement of said species.

Christian belief holds that non-believers will go to hell after death. Their proposed "sorting" takes place in a time that nobody can visit, in a place nobody has ever seen, an event is said to take place after death, that cannot even be studied, or witnessed. That's smug. That's ugly.

The answer lies in non-believers overcoming their frustrations and uniting. To paraphrase Dawkins, it's something like herding cats, because they're so independent, but in sufficient numbers, cats can make a lot of noise.

Answer 2

A lot of fundamentalists have a very high IQ and/or intelligence. However, since the vast majority of the populus are not fundamentalists, it probably wouldn't have any sort of meaningful impact.
If we killed everyone with below average intelligence, religion would survive - people who believe in religion are not stupid. It would be different, but I can't really speculate how it would be different.

Answer 3

I think that if we flushed out everyone with below average intelligence, we'd definitely be rid of religion. There might be some spiritualists who pass the cut, but I can't understand how anyone with any amount of common sense can allow themselves to be burdened with all the rules and regulations and self-hatred that comes along with fundamentalist Christianity, Islam, etc.

Would mankind be greater than what it is now? We could focus more on the preservation and advancement of our people instead of being held back by all this politically correct, kiss up to the fundies nonsense.

Answer 4

Not quite sure that I appove of killing anyone, at least not for lack of intelligence.

But to answer your questions: Not much and it would barely change. The of the second might be that religion might be better argued for and it's followers might understand their faith better as only the smarter believers would be left. As for the first, you'd have to prove that the average IQ of fundamentalists is lower than average.

Answer 5

My IQ is 146 and thats above average and Im pretty much a believer in God hon.

Those with low IQs believe in God without awareness and they dont question any of it.

While those likemyself....have an answer for everything :) which is who you should REALLY go after :P

Answer 6

IQ is all you can think about it, being "smarter" in that sense won't do much,

The greatest civilizations to my knowledge (that still baffle people today) were at least in touch with their spirituality in some way shape or form

Answer 7

Unfortunately you are not correct. There have bin Harvard educated people who joined cults. Religion taps in to something beyond reason.

Answer 8

note to Not Myself: Um, you just made his point for him. In case you haven't noticed, the current president of the USA is a low-grade moron who hears voices in his head and has admitted as such multiple times, even to other heads of state.

Answer 9

2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

So..thinking about killing us are you?
Ummmm. go ahead.... try it.

There are those Militant Christians who will make what is going on in Baghdad and in Iraq look like child splay and will pale in comparison.
And the blood will be on your hands, the fault will be yours

Answer 10

1 My IQ is way above Average
2 My life is dedicated to the Glory of God
3 Would the question be better stated, " Is there anyone with functional gray matter that doesn't believe in God?"
4 Proverbs states " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"