Studies Link High Intelligence With Atheism

[MemoriesThatKill]

I came across this article when trying to explain the arguement that Atheists are smarter than religious folk:

http://jonathanturley.org/2008/07/06/researcher-links-high-intelligence-with-atheism/

First, I would like to note that that was the topic at hand. Whether or not Atheists were smarter than Religious people. The question was poised in a rather sloppy way, considering it makes something of a sweeping generalization of both Atheists and Theists alike. However, I wanted to argue the side that there is probably a correlation between intelligence and Atheism. The reason seemed like common sense to me. The more aware you are, the less you need to rely on religion to tell you what to do or to explain things for you.

Anyways, I got a little smile when I found a study that actually found a link between the two. It strengthened my arguement and explained some things in better words than I could think of at the time.

So, any thoughts GAU?

 

[Levis Pennae]

Yes.

 

[Le Pere Duchesne]

I think it is more correct to say that more atheists are smarter than average. This is very important, because there are many ******** atheists out there, and many extremely intelligent religious people out there.

It is especially important to not dismiss the religious (or conservatives more generally) as dumb, because this leaves you wide open when a smart one does come along.  

[LimeIzMyFaveColor]

I have a friend that is an atheist and she is the Valedictorian of the school. I don't know what ranking I am now. Last time, I checked I was Number 4. (which is close to the Valedictorian and Salutatorian)  

[Labtech Soosh]

We are smarter because we actually understand the world around us through explanations beyond religious means. Instead of saying "it's all because god says so" we actually take in the laws and plausibility of certain scientific truths.

 

[Lethkhar]

That doesn't surprise me at all. That said, there are still quite a few geniuses who are religious. It's called 'compartmentalization'.  

[Captain_Shinzo]

I couldn't see why not.
In a way, sometimes Christians, or religious folk, can be smarter but it depends.
It's more of Science vs. Mythology in a way.
Compare an Atheist to a past-time religious believer.
While the Atheist contemplates on the world from his aspect, the religious believer deludes himself in something that could not be proven ever.

What is proven vs. What can't be proven = Obvious out-come.  

[Im A Little Pea]

I'm going to be the first Atheist who doesn't get an ego boost out of this.
I'm far from being an expert in psychology. The little I know, I know from high school psychology. But I've become aware of how biased intelligence tests are. They only reflect a very small aspect of your abilities and knowledge. It's easy for the person who's doing the research build the test in order to get the wanted data - that person doesn't have to do this consciously. It happens. You live in a certain environment, you learn certain things - when you're working on a test that's supposed to check people's abilities and knowledge, what you're going to cover is mostly what concerns you. It also concerns people with similar backgrounds. But for people who were exposed to different kinds of knowledge it wouldn't go as well.

They said this research was 'spanning 137 countries'. Don't you think a test that was probably written in England, that's matching the English system of education, would be easier for people growing up in it, than it would be for outsiders? Even though it is translated into their language, not all people learn the same things.

I don't think this is fair and I wouldn't get too excited over it.  

[Lethkhar]

Im A Little Pea

I'm going to be the first Atheist who doesn't get an ego boost out of this.
I'm far from being an expert in psychology. The little I know, I know from high school psychology. But I've become aware of how biased intelligence tests are. They only reflect a very small aspect of your abilities and knowledge. It's easy for the person who's doing the research build the test in order to get the wanted data - that person doesn't have to do this consciously. It happens. You live in a certain environment, you learn certain things - when you're working on a test that's supposed to check people's abilities and knowledge, what you're going to cover is mostly what concerns you. It also concerns people with similar backgrounds. But for people who were exposed to different kinds of knowledge it wouldn't go as well.

They said this research was 'spanning 137 countries'. Don't you think a test that was probably written in England, that's matching the English system of education, would be easier for people growing up in it, than it would be for outsiders? Even though it is translated into their language, not all people learn the same things.

I don't think this is fair and I wouldn't get too excited over it.

Well, yeah, no s**t.  

[dl1371]

Yes, atheists are smarter than religious people generally. Is this surprising? I think its generally assumed that if a group of people is right than they're smarter.
Anywho, the only reason we're smarter is because we're grounded in the material world, and intelligence is a material world concept. I'll bet if they did a study on who could read facial expressions better, religious people would kick our a**es.  

[Jester the Nightmare]

Wooooo! Were geniuses! Awesome I'm going to go apply for a government grant to start my inventing of the auto-matic laundry folding, CD changing, dishwasher! No but seriously this makes sense to me, if your always having to think in a boxed world you always get a boxed in answer, were if you think open-minded your going to be able to think of possibilities that could not be thought of while being a catholic.  

[Lethkhar]

dl1371

Yes, atheists are smarter than religious people generally. Is this surprising? I think its generally assumed that if a group of people is right than they're smarter.
Anywho, the only reason we're smarter is because we're grounded in the material world, and intelligence is a material world concept. I'll bet if they did a study on who could read facial expressions better, religious people would kick our a**es.

Why?  

[brainnsoup]

Im A Little Pea

I'm going to be the first Atheist who doesn't get an ego boost out of this.
I'm far from being an expert in psychology. The little I know, I know from high school psychology. But I've become aware of how biased intelligence tests are. They only reflect a very small aspect of your abilities and knowledge. It's easy for the person who's doing the research build the test in order to get the wanted data - that person doesn't have to do this consciously. It happens. You live in a certain environment, you learn certain things - when you're working on a test that's supposed to check people's abilities and knowledge, what you're going to cover is mostly what concerns you. It also concerns people with similar backgrounds. But for people who were exposed to different kinds of knowledge it wouldn't go as well.

They said this research was 'spanning 137 countries'. Don't you think a test that was probably written in England, that's matching the English system of education, would be easier for people growing up in it, than it would be for outsiders? Even though it is translated into their language, not all people learn the same things.

I don't think this is fair and I wouldn't get too excited over it.

This! The researcher also drew false conclusions by assuming that he actually proved anything by finding a correlation. Even if he did have some objective way of measuring intelligence and did prove that most intelligent people were atheists, there is no reason to assume that that is anything more than a coincidence.

I do believe that the average atheist is smarter than the average theist, but I think that is because most atheists are atheists because they have been forced to logically think about whether or not the religion they were raised with is valid. Only some theists have. A theist can go his whole life without ever having to question his reality. An atheist can't.  

[dl1371]

Lethkhar

dl1371

Yes, atheists are smarter than religious people generally. Is this surprising? I think its generally assumed that if a group of people is right than they're smarter.
Anywho, the only reason we're smarter is because we're grounded in the material world, and intelligence is a material world concept. I'll bet if they did a study on who could read facial expressions better, religious people would kick our a**es.

Why?

Because religion focuses on feelings and love etc.
Atheism focuses on reality.
We know 'bout reality, they know about feelings and love, and all that great stuff.  

[Captain_Shinzo]

Im A Little Pea

I'm going to be the first Atheist who doesn't get an ego boost out of this.
I'm far from being an expert in psychology. The little I know, I know from high school psychology. But I've become aware of how biased intelligence tests are. They only reflect a very small aspect of your abilities and knowledge. It's easy for the person who's doing the research build the test in order to get the wanted data - that person doesn't have to do this consciously. It happens. You live in a certain environment, you learn certain things - when you're working on a test that's supposed to check people's abilities and knowledge, what you're going to cover is mostly what concerns you. It also concerns people with similar backgrounds. But for people who were exposed to different kinds of knowledge it wouldn't go as well.

They said this research was 'spanning 137 countries'. Don't you think a test that was probably written in England, that's matching the English system of education, would be easier for people growing up in it, than it would be for outsiders? Even though it is translated into their language, not all people learn the same things.

I don't think this is fair and I wouldn't get too excited over it.

No one is getting excited over this, it is just funny and great how we usually stumble upon graphs about this and come with a common conclusion.
So yeah, no s**t.