Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

[Engler]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

I happen to be Catholic, and while I do believe in God and afterlife (Hell, Purgatory, Heaven), I keep an open mind, and am personally infatuated with science and how the world works.

[MixMasterLar]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

There is keeping an open mind, and then there's being wishy-washy

2nd group is easier to fing IMO, tho not as easy as "IM RIGHT ALWAYS FOOL"

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

When do I ever criticize peoples religions because I think my own is correct?

I dunno, maybe when you fail to read what people quote.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[fido123]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

I dunno, maybe when you fail to read what people quote.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

...I still can't see it...I'm not Christian so by me saying that many Christians are pretty blind to things around them because they assume the Bible is the only true answer wouldn't apply to Pot to Kettle...

[devonin]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

No fido, he's saying that for you to say "They are ignorant and only believe what they are told" is hypocritical because clearly, since you provided no support for this, you appear to him to also be -saying- "They are ignorant and only believe what they are told" -because- you are yourself ignorant and only believing what you've been told.

Whether his point is valid or not is up for debate, but I hope that clears up his intent.

[fido123]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
A super correct way to put what I'm trying to say would be: Many Christians I know, therefore I assume there are many others like them, were taught the Bible as children and never looked for any other answers and simply answer everything with what they were first taught."

[MixMasterLar]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

That's most every religion dude

[meno_rocks123]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

I'm Christian. I believe in God, Jesus, Creation and all that stuff. it doesn't make me generally any less smart than anyone else. I personally love to figure out how the world works and how everything works out.

PS: took two IQ tests today and got 140+ on both. (fyi- I'm a genius)

[TC_=MaxXFreaK=]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

i think anyone can be smart if they study and load their brains with books and things, i dont think it has anything to do with religion.

[devonin]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

PS: took two IQ tests today and got 140+ on both. (fyi- I'm a genius)

The surest sign that you aren't a genius is that you seem to think that scoring high on an IQ test makes you a genius. And further, 140 on an IQ test isn't actually that high, and while perhaps indicative of being "gifted" is a far cry from "Genius"

Depending on which official test you take, you need as high as a 148 to qualfiy to join MENSA, and their traditional cutoff is that you must be in the top 2% of the population.

[Afrobean]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

The surest sign that you aren't a genius is that you seem to think that scoring high on an IQ test makes you a genius. And further, 140 on an IQ test isn't actually that high, and while perhaps indicative of being "gifted" is a far cry from "Genius"

Depending on which official test you take, you need as high as a 148 to qualfiy to join MENSA, and their traditional cutoff is that you must be in the top 2% of the population.

I'm not sure what sort of the shape the bell curve takes exactly, but I always heard that over 130 was considered genius.

But yeah, online tests aren't good representation of true intelligence. Then again, there isn't any really truly good way to test intelligence.

ps

i think anyone can be smart if they study and load their brains with books and things, i dont think it has anything to do with religion.

This person doesn't understand the difference between intelligence and knowledge.

[devonin]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

I'm not sure what sort of the shape the bell curve takes exactly, but I always heard that over 130 was considered genius.

I've heard of IQs down below 60, and I've heard of IQs up into the 190s.

140 is generally the minimum for entry in MENSA, so if you consider all MENSA members to be geniuses, then I guess that isn't a terrible bar to set, but if I were going to assign "Genius" to any subset of the population, it would have to be smaller than the top 1.0% and since MENSA ~= 140 ~= top 2%, I have to set my bar higher than that.

[meno_rocks123]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

i think anyone can be smart if they study and load their brains with books and things, i dont think it has anything to do with religion.

That's absolutely the point. Everyone can be smart, some just don't choose to learn things. I know at least 6 people who can't add or subtract. I'm just lucky. I don't work hard in school (I rarely take notes, do optional homework, and I never study. I get concepts really easily and absorb information and it doesn't go away. I know someone who gets straight A's every year (they're considered to be the smartest kid in the school) and they aren't actually all that smart. They work hard to get concepts, they study and it pays off.
I could see religious people generally being "less smart" than atheists because I even don't agree with some of the stuff I'm taught, but I still learn it. the problem comes in when people don't learn things because they're against their religion (I've seen it happen).

tl;dr version(although the longer one is better and I might leave something out here)- some people are naturally smarter, some aren't. The people who aren't naturally smart work hard and they can be smart. Religious people are just as smart as atheists but I could see there being a problem when someone refuses to learn something because it's against their religion.


EDIT:

140 is generally the minimum for entry in MENSA, so if you consider all MENSA members to be geniuses, then I guess that isn't a terrible bar to set, but if I were going to assign "Genius" to any subset of the population, it would have to be smaller than the top 1.0% and since MENSA ~= 140 ~= top 2%, I have to set my bar higher than that.

I can see the logic there, and I'm ready to say I'm "gifted" instead of a genious, but the fact is, I'm 15 right now and my IQ has gone up ~15 in the past year-and-a-half

[windsurfer-sp]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

Far to broad of a statement for me to ever consider being close to true. The group of people represented in "religous people" is far to broad and subjective to come close to being able to be analysed.

People chose religion half way through their life, were they always unintelligent or did the process of choosing religion transform them into unintelligence?

I understand there is some form of statistical correlation found. I am not in a postion to dispute its credibility. If all the argument has is some form of statistcal correlation then I dont see it as being a good one.

Grandia: Some people will ignore things because of their beliefs, this makes them ignorant not unintelligent.

[aperson]

Re: Religious people aren't as smart as Atheists

I can see the logic there, and I'm ready to say I'm "gifted" instead of a genious, but the fact is, I'm 15 right now and my IQ has gone up ~15 in the past year-and-a-half

I scored 146 on a large, rigorous IQ test when I was in kindergarten and 144 on another one in 2nd grade. It doesn't matter if your IQ went up in the past year-and-a-half, that's variance. It also doesn't mean you're a genius if you have an IQ above 140. The truth is that lots of people that don't go anywhere with life have high IQs; just because you have pattern recognition skills doesn't mean you're set for life.



This topic is also incredibly stupid. I've met smart and dumb Christians, Atheists, Muslims, Buddhist, Baha'i, and others. Just because a large amount of undereducated people are brought up with strong, religious family doctrine doesn't mean all followers are that way. When people stress that correlation does not equal causation, they really can't stress it enough... Mainly because ignorant people don't understand the implications it has and like to leap over as close to causality as they can from any correlative study.