Who's actually smarter Atheists or Theists?

Question

The broad consensus of research shows that people with higher IQs tend to be less religious!

Argument

Is it more logical to be a Christian? Is religion the natural choice of a smart person familiar with more of the evidence? Not according to a broad consensus of studies on IQ and religiosity. These studies have consistently found that the lower the IQ score, the more likely a person is to be religious.
The studies go here.......
.......CONCLUSION: The consensus here is clear: more intelligent people tend not to believe in religion. And this observation is given added force when you consider that the above studies span a broad range of time, subjects and methodologies, and yet arrive at the same conclusion.
To look at the poll results for yourselves go here: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-thinkingchristians.htm

Why does this correlation exist? The first answer that comes to mind is that religious beliefs tend to be more illogical or incoherent than secular beliefs, and intelligent people tend to recognize that more quickly. But this explanation will surely be rejected by religious people, who will seek other explanations and rationalizations.

A possible counter-argument is that intelligent people tend to be more successful than others. The lure of worldly success and materialism draws many of these intellectually gifted individuals away from God. After all, who needs God when you (apparently) are making it on your own?

The simplest and most parsimonious explanation is that religion is a set of logical and factual claims, and those with the most logic and facts at their disposal are rejecting it largely on those grounds

Mr Bad: I never said I was smarter than anyone else. I simply put an article on Yahoo answers. Theists keep saying that "believing" doesn't reflect one's intelect. I posted a study that states the opposite has been found.

Mrs. Stupid- Don't confuse backbone with ignorance.

Earl get your facts straight about the scientists you claim believed. If you'd look at the site you would see that the studies were also conducted by Christians.

MAX you stated, "I haven't found a credible source for your claims. However, I would say there is no correlation between the IQ of the religious and non religious population". How hard could you have looked for a credible source within 10 minutes? Gallop is one of the contributors to the study, but I guess you'll say the Gallop polls aren't credible, and neither are the Harvard students, right?

Answer 1

Golly... I've gotta say that I've read some pretty unintelligent stuff coming from the the theist side of the room. For what it worth, if we here represent a reasonable cross section of society, there's no doubt that the average theist is lacking in education and that he could use a decent boost of good ole ordinary common sense smarts, too...

[][][] r u randy? [][][]
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Answer 2

IQ = 130
Religious

I haven't found a credible source for your claims. However, I would say there is no correlation between the IQ of the religious and non religious population.

God is not a cerebral pursuit anymore than love is a cerebral pursuit. God is a spiritual pursuit. God cannot be intellectualized.

Don't you just hate a good answer. hehe
On this site, good answers are judged by down thumbs. :-)

Answer 3

There's plenty of stupid Atheists... even more stupid Agnostics. They are the kind who do it out of fashion, misunderstanding and to irritate others. It's these types that give the rest of us a bad name. There are many intelligent and wise people of all the major religions of the world. Their faith may be a type of ignorance, but isn't necessarily stupidity. Heck, I must be stupid because I didn't understand that one Christian chick's "Cyclone Fan" remark at all...

Answer 4

Total fallacy.

It's an egotistical superiority rap put forth by 4% of the world population against 80% of the worlds population that they are somehow BETTER and SUPERIOR.

The fact remains, statistically they are the same.

The same rough percentage goes to college, becomes professional, writes books, makes discoveries, gets divorced, dies from drugs, dies from cancer, gets AIDS.

Let's get it clear. Most Metal Heads, Dopers and Punkers are essentially "non-believers."

They are the Atheist eqivalent of trailer trash people with no front teeth.

Since they are non-believers you have to accept them into your ranks.

They are a type of "red neck."

Live with it

We basically have close to the same STATS

It is a FACT that some of the GREATEST thinkers of our times were beleivers in God and/or Jesus and/or the Bible

Including Newton

Einstein

Faraday

Many others.

This is not to say there are just as many non-believers for there are.

The STATS are about the same.

Answer 5

Judging by the people on this board everyday, Atheists are by far much more intelligent than theists.

There are some very intelligent theists, Father K, for example. Unfortunately for every Father K there are 5 ignorant creationist fundies. That brings the average way down!!!

Answer 6

the thing about it is that its completely illogical to believe what the bible says is true. intelligent religious people accept this, however its not intelligence that makes you necessarily one way or the other. if that were the case, religion would have played out long ago.

edit...
stupid... are you implying that it takes courage to accept thumbs downs? if so, you've got a tough life ahead of you. also, it makes you look dumb, not correct.

Answer 7

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good. Psalm 14:1

It's logical to be Christian. Who would listen to a fool!?

God who cannot lie. Titus 1:2

God uses the simple to humble the wise and the weak to humble the strong.

Answer 8

The correlation exists because religion is illogical and demands conformation to nonsensical absolutes for belief and behaviour, which any rational thinking person can see is BS. The "True believers" are the ones who are easily manipulated emotionally and mentally into foolish beliefs.

Answer 9

George, with all due respect it's "ad nauseam," ending with an "am," and not "ad nauseum," ending with a "um."

With respect to Patrick's question, I don't believe that intelligence levels can be sorted according to religious belief. The facts underlying religious belief cannot be proven scientifically, nor can they be disproven scientifically.

Therefore, a person who believes in God, for example, in the absence of tangible evidence of His existence, is no more nor less correct, and certainly no more nor less intelligent, than a person who disbelieves in God in the absence of tangible evidence of His existence.

The question of the existence or nonexistence of God is one that simply is not capable of being tested scientifically. To say the proposition that God exists has not been proven scientifically is not to say that it has been disproven scientfically.

It can no more be disproven scientifically than it can be proven scientifically. I say that with confidence because I have never known, seen, nor heard of a scintilla of scientific proof or disproof of the existence of God; and I challenge anyone who claims to have seen or heard of any such proof or disproof to produce it and show it to me.

Answer 10

Intelligence does not in any way indicate success.

Beyond that, less intelligent people tend to be more superstitious hence more religiosity.