Religion and Intelligence Quotient

I think they already know these things, which is why some theists try to paint science or athism as another religion instead of recognizing them as entitys apart from it.

However I would like to point out that these charts are bias. Whoever compiled this data was using scientific means of some sort. This was clearly not an objective party, but some scientificly leaning person.

If I do my own un-biased chart by using both faith and science I could make a chart that says that the adverage church goer is 200% smarter than the adverage university physics professor. (In this hypothectical situation I used the faith to get the figures and the science to make pretty graphics on the computer)

You see how that works?
 
I was a bit confused by the way you stated that, but what I think you are saying is that the data and tests were measured in a scientific way, therefore skewing the results because the person who made it had an understanding of science, which means he was probably leaning towards the scientific side...

In your example you used "faith" to get the numbers...

Faith - Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence (dictionary.com)

So you hoped those numbers were right based on no logical proof or material evidence. You want people to make IQ scores up (faith) and then compute them in a scientific matter? Nice joke :D

Edit: I think I see what you mean. It compares religious people to scientists, but those are only the first three "facts". The rest of the list consists of other people.
 
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I had a similar thought regarding intelligence and religion and at first I thought just as you did that intelligence and religion were inversely proportional.

But looking back into ancient history we find the most intelligent people were spiritual. Such as witch doctors,medicine men and scribes of religious scripts. Egyptian hyroglyphics is a good example of ancient intelligence. One can claim that religion was a big boost to literature. Most ancient books deal with religion.

In more recent history such men as Isac Newton were devout christians and by all means sir Newton was no dummy. It's only in the last 150 years that science has evolve to the point that it can be used to understand the universe and has given a boost to atheistic thinking.

I would lean more to the belief that scientific education in modern man has done more harm to religion than intelligence by itself.
 
Greco,

You are confusing intelligence with knowledge. Those past 'intelligent' people were using the best 'theories' that were available at the time and without modern science everything appeared to have magical qualities.

As more information and real knowledge becomes available, i.e. through the discipline of science, we see that the more intelligent among us can see the difference, quality and truth of the new information. Unfortunately the less intelligent appear unable to tell the difference and instead prefer ancient outdated superstitions and religion.

Consequently it is no surprise that the more highly educated and especially those who work in science are the least religious.

Provide Newton with all the tools and knowledge of modern science and then lets see what he would conclude. Until then your comparison is invalid.

Although I think your last statement is in agreement with my perspective.

Kat
 
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As you mentioned, in ancient history the wise men were spiritual. They probably would not understand the concept of being an atheist. Back in the day, intelligence meant being literate and being literate meant you were reading some form of religious work. Sir Isaac Newton was alive before the time of Tom Paine and other people who paved the way to modern Atheism. You are correct though, being religious does not by default make you dumb.
 
Katazia,

i.e. through the discipline of science, we see that the more intelligent among us can see the difference, quality and truth of the new information.

Who do you regard as "the more intelligent among us", and why are they more intelligent??

Jan Ardena.
 
Jan Ardena,

Who do you regard as "the more intelligent among us", and why are they more intelligent??
Click to expand...

I think the two links stated in the opening post answer your question.

Kat
 
We can agree then that a combination of scientific knowledge and intelligence at some point reach "critical mass" at which point an "eureka" epiphany occurs and pushes us into the realm of atheism.

I dont know at what point of the intelligence scale I fit in since I'm still an agnostic. Although I've discounted the bible to the status of a combination of myth, superstition and history I refuse to give up on the notion of a superior power beyond our understanding.

I will remain an agnostic until the last scintila of knowledge is known.
 
Jan Ardena,

I've no problem with the established standard of IQ testing. Why? Becuase they have proved generally reliable for a long time.

Kat
 
spymoose, that comment about using faith to find the results of polls, it makes a scary amount of sense, theres no real way to rebut it
 
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