Do only stupid people believe in god?

Question

According to MENSA the higher your IQ the less likely you are to believe in god. Alright the archbishop on cantubury may be clever in his field but basically are christians/jews.muslims stupid or just gullible

Thankyou for pointing out my typo skalite, you can now go abuse yourself excitedly knowing you got one up on me

Dee Cee, don't waste your time praying, it achieves nothing. I'm not embittered as you think, it was a stupid thing of you to say..., but then again you're a christian. You've answered my question for me.

Wow, I ask a genuine question and the bible bashers see it as an attack on their faith (faith =belief without evidence.) Don't know about stupidity but paranoia certainly runs rife through the religious community

MENSA source MENSA Magazine 2002

Answer 1

I have a high IQ went to University and believe in God

Answer 2

You wrote "Wow, I ask a genuine question and the bible bashers see it as an attack on their faith".

Your Question, Do only stupid people believe in God?

Was that a genuine question that you did not already know the answer to? Either you did not have the ability to word it in a manner that was not so condescending or your intent behide the question was to offend and make fun of people of faith.

Over the last 25 years man's knowledge in almost all areas have accomplished more than the 100 years before combined. In 2000 Christians made up 33% of the world population, Muslims 19.6%, Hindus 13.4 %, Jews 2% and Buddhists 5.9 %, etc. Although I am sure many atheists have and will continue to contribute to society, our growth in knowledge over the last 20 years was not accomplished alone by the less than 3% who believe in no god.




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Answer 3

No, not necessarily. You're being irrational, certainly. But there are some very smart people who are irrational at times. Just be honest about it, and don't be a jerk about it, and it's all good. If your belief is of personal comfort to you, or a personal guide to your life -- great. Enjoy. It's only when you go around claiming your belief is "real," when there's no evidence to show it is...or you want to force other people to accept it, or make it into laws, or take away the civil rights of non-believers that it's a problem. I respect honest believers such as Martin Gardner, who honestly admits there's no evidence for any god, and all the claimed "proofs" are worthless. He says he believes because it comforts him. That's fine for him, and it's honest. Peace.

Answer 4

Even a very limited experience of life will tell you, without having to post this question, that this is plainly not the case. The question could have been "Do Theists tend to have, on average, a rather lower IQ than Atheists" This would have had the advantage of being a question which made sense, and could therefore have been discussed.

Forgive me for making the observation, that your formulation of the question is, at best, saying a great deal about your attitude towards people who do have a belief in a God, and at worst, it is saying quite a lot about the level of your own intelligence - but then again intelligence isn't everything, so don't be downcast...

Answer 5

Hmmm let me think... no.
I am not stupid, or gullible or scared and I believe in God. I've done the MENSA IQ test and got enough to join (didn't bother).
Because matters of faith are always regarded as simple by some not admitting to a belief in God is probably just intellectual snobbery.

Answer 6

I don't think the level of intelligence has that much to do with believing in illogical ideas like religions. It may well be that Mensa has a higher number of atheists than the general population but that could be that the tests measure an ability to thing logically and there are more types of intelligence than that.
What you need to believe in a religion is blind faith. Where this comes from in the human psyche I don't know but it does not seem to be related to intelligence
I am an atheist by the way and a member of Mensa

Answer 7

No. Pope John Paul knew 11 languages. Today's thought is not as developed in terms of religion and philosophy and much of that develpment has put questions of God in doubt. You might research the "Faith and Reason", the "Enlightenment" and the history of Religious and Philosophical trends particularly in Europe.

The history of the World War led many to try to develop new thinking to try to fix problems that seem to bring about the horrors of those wars and Nazi Germany and such. John-Paul Satre developed thought that left out God. But the suggestions were to solve the problems more then to rid reason of relgion. Thomas Aquanis was holding up this for quite a long time, but the modern thought, particularly with the challenges of the new thought of Pschology and Freud, needed fresh thinking. I also think John Paul II took up this challenge quite well, but there are others. He was gifted in Theology an philosophy, particularly in the anthropolgically based field of phenomonolgy. Phenomonolgy, is a modern philosophical field based in psychology. Todays most advanced thought trends toward empirical science. But you cannot study God empirically. Unfortunately, if you are more intelligent then 99.9 percent of those around you, it is difficult to see that you may not know everything. This is why it is so important to understand the link between faith and reason. If you don't, the gifted will put there gifts elsewhere and God becomes someone who doesn't seem to care. One that can speak your own language that is so intellectual. Yet God is of the Highest intelligence, and he came to bring us light in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This greatest of all men is largely being banned or shunned in higher educational circles and universities for years.

Answer 8

Dominic I have a first class degree, my IQ is 156 and I believe in God. One thing that is certain I am not stupid.
MENSA is an elitist group who's opinion is not of any real value. I believe truly stupid people are unable to grasp the concept of God so maybe your question has become inverted. It is a conceptual infelicity to associate stupidity with theology you really ought to know better than to be so provocative.

Answer 9

Not everyone who would qualify for MENSA membership applies. So I think there are a LOT of extremely smart genius types out there who believe in God. So I say that those who believe in God are neither stupid nor gullible, and while not everyone who believes is a genius, I think there are some believers who may in fact be some of the smartest people out there.

Answer 10

Well if Christians are stupid here are some stupid people for you:

Sir John Polkinghorne FRS
Sir Ghillian Prance FRS
Prof Sam Berry FRSE
Sir John Houghton FRS
Prof Francis Collins (American Academy of Sciences)
Prof Joan Roughgarden (American Academy of Sciences)

Answer 11

We must, of course, bear in mind that MENSA has a particular axe to grind, and "consider the source," as the old saying has it.

A great many very intelligent people believe in God.

I would suggest to you that you read "Why We Believe What We Believe," and "Why God Won't Go Away," both by the neurobiologist Andrew Newberg. In these books Dr. Newberg examines the "brain science" of belief and how it works.