I mean all the atheists of the world and all the religion believers. Will it be religion believers because they are greater in number or will the atheists beat them with their higher IQ (if they actually do have a higher IQ)? What's your opinion?
2007-09-03 00:04:40 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The religious people will win out, just by virtue of their sheer numbers. It doesn't matter how many atheists there are with high IQs, there are still a much greater number of believers than there are unbelievers. Let's assign ridiculous numbers for IQs, and I think you will see what I mean. There are what, 6 billion people in the world? Let's use that for our world population number.
The first stats that came to hand were from 2000, and they showed 2.5% of the world population to be atheists. They also showed 12.7% of the world population to be non-believers, but they didn't explain that in detail (or perhaps I didn't look far enough). Let's use the larger number of 12.7% of the world's popluation as non-believers, with the other 87.3% being believers in something, whatever that might be.
Now that we have a population proportion to go on, let's assign those ridiculous numbers. Why ridiculous? Well, I am going to give the non-believers an IQ of 200, which is off the charts, and I am going to give the believers an IQ of 50, which is pretty much disabled and unable to care for oneself without help. Let's plug in those numbers. Here's what we get.
12.7% of 6 billion is 762,000,000 ====> Non-believers
87.3% of 6 billion is 5,238,000,000 ====> Believers
Now, let's plug in the ridiculous IQ scores I assigned to each. Let me simply note that I did that to completely maximize the intelligence of the non-believers and minimize the intelligence of the believers. Realistically, statistics have shown us that the larger a given population grows, the closer the average IQ gets to 100, with the ultra intelligent picking up the slack for the ultra unintelligent. No matter how you slice it, and no matter how many people are educated and how many are not, you still get closer and closer to the completely average IQ of 100 the larger your sampling. I didn't use that, just to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, i.e. really smart atheists and really stupid believers. I wanted to give the non-believers every possible advantage, since their IQ numbers are still going to come in lower because they are such a small part of the population.
Using those other numbers for the calculation of numbers of believers, and assigning IQ scores to each, we come up with:
152,400,000,000 ====> IQ points for atheists
261,900,000,000 ====> IQ points for believers
So, as you see, even if we assume that all believers are incapable of wiping their own noses or dressing themselves, and that all non-believers are incredibly and mindblowningly intelligent, the believers still win due to their sheer numbers.
Have a nice night ;)
2007-09-03 00:58:16 · answer #1 · answered by Bronwen 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
It's impossible for the atheists to win by the sheer amount of religious people there are worldwide.
If there's a ratio 1/5 atheists/theists (but I think I overestimate the amount of atheists worldwide), the atheist would have to have an IQ of 400 to match up with the theists if the theists would all have an average IQ of 100. I've never heard of anybody with an IQ of 400, but even is there ever has been anybody like that, I know the IQ of the average atheist is much lower than that, so the theists will win.
Still, it doesn't make the theist community in total more clever, because you'd have to look at the average of the groups. And for what I've been reading so far from researches, atheists tend to be more intelligent, but there's no researcher who dares to draw that conclusion in public. They just show the figures, to let you draw your own conclusion, as it is obvious.
2007-09-03 00:34:36 · answer #2 · answered by Batfish 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
9 of the 10 smartest people in the world believes in God . Combine the total of their IQ's alone and you'll get more than the total amount of iq of all of the atheists ;)
2015-12-18 02:35:35 · answer #3 · answered by ? 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Total IQ of all the religion believers would be substantially higher because of higher numbers. Average IQ would be very similar.
2007-09-03 00:10:44 · answer #4 · answered by Tom :: Athier than Thou 6 · 7⤊ 0⤋
It's really not a question of IQ as such, it's a question of naivety. Many people with very high IQ's and education are like children when it comes to actual living skills.
Religion is like the old 3 card trick and usually fools children and naive people.
2007-09-03 00:12:55 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
That would be a meaningless calculation. Two people each with an IQ of 150 aren't going to be beaten by two hundred people each with an IQ of 50.
2007-09-03 00:10:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
It would be an interesting exercise to measure the IQ of any congregation on any given Sunday.
Their methods of denial, divisive and bigoted teachings, ignorance, scientific illiteracy, and arrogance would not be to the benefit of their scores..
They could just answer every question with "god knows, and I have faith in him"...
Easy cop out, but woeful IQ score..
2007-09-03 00:15:08 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't matter - if you're wrong, it doesn't matter if you're in a majority or a minority. if you're intelligent, it doesn't mean you get everything right. P.S. I'm an atheist with a 145 IQ.
2007-09-03 00:16:56 · answer #8 · answered by Pedantic Scorpion 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot of people appear to be making the assumption that all Atheists are scientists while all believers are morons.
2007-09-03 00:37:56 · answer #9 · answered by Mr. Eko 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
You'd have to add mine to both sides. As an animist, I'm a religious believer who does not believe in any deity.
2007-09-03 00:23:04 · answer #10 · answered by Valarian 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋