Smart people don't believe in god...

[random evil guy]

1. Thomas Howells, 1927

Study of 461 students showed religiously conversative students "are,

in general, relatively inferior in intellectual ability."

 

2. Hilding Carlsojn, 1933

Study of 215 students showed that "there is a tendency for the more

intelligent undergraduate to be sympathetic toward ... atheism."

 

3. Thomas Symington, 1935

Tested 400 young people in colleges and church groups.  He reported,

"there is a constant positive relation in all the groups between

liberal religious thinking and mental ability...There is also a

constant positive relation between liberal scores and intelligence..."

 

4. C. Plant and E. Minium, 1967

The more intelligent students were less religious, both before entering

college and after 2 years of college.

 

5.  Norman Poythress, 1975

Mean SATs for strongly antireligious (1148), moderately anti-

religious (1119), slightly antireligious (1108), and religious (1022).

 

there are a ton of studies like these out there and they all say the same: smart people don't believe in god... :D

[Darth Flatus]

Sir isaac newton was a devout christian. Albert einstein believed in god in a non conventional sense.

 

Islamic scholars took greek maths and advanced it.

 

Its not true that being religious precludes intelligence.

[Kaftan Barlast]

This is gonna start o e hell of a flame war :D

 

 

 

 

But Im with you, IMO, believing in god is not one bit different than believing in Santa Claus.

[Darth Flatus]

People can have faith in what they want so long as they realise that there is the possibility (no matter how small) that they are wrong. Also they should have the wherewithal to question everything at all times.

[GarethCarrots]

my science teacher has an iq of 162, which is pretty formidable. he believes in god. although he did spend like 18 months researching the bible to see if it was bull**** or not, and he came to the conclusion that it was more likely to be true than bs so thats just one more clever person who believes in god.

personally i dont.

[Oerwinde]

Those studies all show averages. Which means there are dumb people and smart people in every group (unless the groups are "dumb" and "smart" then I'm pretty sure theres no smart people in the dumb group) it just means there are more smart non-religious people than smart religious people, doesn't mean all religious people are dumb and all non-religious people are smart. One of my friends seems to think he's a devout catholic... despite the pre-marital protected sex and all, and he's much smarter than me. In some areas at least.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Smart people don't believe in god...  :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

God doesn't believe in smart people.

[Darth Flatus]

thats why all his followers are stupid

[SteveThaiBinh]

1. Thomas Howells, 1927

Study of 461 students showed religiously conversative students "are,

in general, relatively inferior in intellectual ability."

 

2. Hilding Carlsojn, 1933

Study of 215 students showed that "there is a tendency for the more

intelligent undergraduate to be sympathetic toward ... atheism."

 

3. Thomas Symington, 1935

Tested 400 young people in colleges and church groups.  He reported,

"there is a constant positive relation in all the groups between

liberal religious thinking and mental ability...There is also a

constant positive relation between liberal scores and intelligence..."

 

4. C. Plant and E. Minium, 1967

The more intelligent students were less religious, both before entering

college and after 2 years of college.

 

5.  Norman Poythress, 1975

Mean SATs for strongly antireligious (1148), moderately anti-

religious (1119), slightly antireligious (1108), and religious (1022).

 

there are a ton of studies like these out there and they all say the same: smart people don't believe in god... :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some of these studies are quite old and use relatively small samples. Even if they are true in the contexts in which they occurred, it would be dangerous to generalise. Were the studies all conducted in one country? Does it refer to only one religion, or were several included? Are SATs a reliable measure of IQ? Is IQ a reliable measure of intelligence?

 

You need to do a bit more to persuade me that these aren't a handful of rather dated and unreliable studies with little to tell us.

[213374U]

 

 

"Also, it's a proven fact that Catholics have a substantially smaller cranium, which obviously leads to the conclusion that they are an inferior race."

[taks]

there are a ton of studies like these out there and they all say the same: smart people don't believe in god...  :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

they're all probably bogus, too. these are studies that are normally run by people with agendas. probably done by the same kind of folks that do studies pointing out that all the republican presidents have very low IQs compared to democrats. they want to prove something. lacking in ethics is an understatement. in the engineering world, where some of the smartest individuals you'd ever care to meet exist, the populace is mixed in terms of beliefs. most (75% or so) actually fall into the middle somewhere believing in god but not necessarily religion (there is a difference). given that 95% of the world population believes in a higher power, it's pretty easy to see the problem with such "studies."

 

i am an atheist in case you were wondering.

 

taks

[taks]

People can have faith in what they want so long as they realise that there is the possibility (no matter how small) that they are wrong. Also they should have the wherewithal to question everything at all times.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

smarter words are not often typed.

taks

[taks]

Those studies all show averages.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

actually, they show biases. to begin with, the "results" of such polls rarely state the exact question asked. it is very easy to write a question in such a way to get the answer you want in the first place. next, taking a poll on one campus at a liberal college will certainly skew results. i could run a poll at a private catholic school and you'd see vastly different results.

 

agenda driven ideologues (right or left) cast data in a manner consistent with their ideology, with or without intent. you have to turn on your skew filter when reading any poll.

 

taks

[random evil guy]

there are a ton of studies like these out there and they all say the same: smart people don't believe in god...  :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

they're all probably bogus, too. these are studies that are normally run by people with agendas.

 

taks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

because you say so...?

 

here is the link:

http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Jesus/Intelligen...20religion.html

 

the point is they all show the same. key word here is tendencies...

[taks]

Are SATs a reliable measure of IQ?

they used to be... back in the 70s and early 80s.

 

Is IQ a reliable measure of intelligence?

ability to learn is actually what it is designed to measure. however, even that is only valid within a certain context. people learn different things different ways. IQ tests typically look at analytical skills, particularly pattern recognition.

 

taks

[taks]

because you say so...?  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

funny, but did i say they definitively were or did i say probably?

 

pay attention. like i said, it's easy to pick out agenda driven polls. if you'd like me to provide a list of religious references that have 180 or so IQs i can. many more conservatives in the engineering ranks than just about any other professional career.

 

taks

[taks]

the point is they all show the same. key word here is tendencies...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that doesn't make their agenda any less apparent. studies show what they want, tendency, trend, fact...

 

i bet i could poll 100 scientists and 90% would agree that polls are worthless. oh, and yes, i have personal access to many more than 100 scientists...

 

taks

[random evil guy]

the point is they all show the same. key word here is tendencies...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that doesn't make their agenda any less apparent. studies show what they want, tendency, trend, fact...

 

i bet i could poll 100 scientists and 90% would agree that polls are worthless. oh, and yes, i have personal access to many more than 100 scientists...

 

taks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

so you're trying to discredit the results by saying polls in general are biased? that's pathetic, even for you...

 

either prove that these results are wrong, the studies are biased or shut up... "

[213374U]

I guess the ability to quote multiple posts in a single reply is also a measure of intelligence. "

[taks]

so you're trying to discredit the results by saying polls in general are biased? that's pathetic, even for you...

you just gotta sling some insults, don't you? can't live without them...

 

go back and read my posts. i said, specifically, that polls like these are typically agenda driven. somebody has a point to prove, and it's usually obvious what that point is. show me the actual questions used in these polls, for the entire poll, and i may reevaluate.

 

either prove that these results are wrong, the studies are biased or shut up... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you stated the polls first. why don't you show me these polls are statistically significant or YOU shut up.

 

you just don't get science, do you? people like you are the reason polls are worthless, yes, in general this time.

 

taks

[taks]

I guess the ability to quote multiple posts in a single reply is also a measure of intelligence.  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

einstein speaking, eh?

 

it's generally considered rude, btw, to do a line item dissection of somebody's post. it makes it hard to follow. so what was that about intelligence?

 

taks

[random evil guy]

?sd

[Fionavar]

This is gonna start o e hell of a flame war :D

 

Subtle nudge - let's not ... OK

 

FLoSD.ObE

[FaramirK]

1. Thomas Howells, 1927

Study of 461 students showed religiously conversative students "are,

in general, relatively inferior in intellectual ability."

 

2. Hilding Carlsojn, 1933

Study of 215 students showed that "there is a tendency for the more

intelligent undergraduate to be sympathetic toward ... atheism."

 

3. Thomas Symington, 1935

Tested 400 young people in colleges and church groups.  He reported,

"there is a constant positive relation in all the groups between

liberal religious thinking and mental ability...There is also a

constant positive relation between liberal scores and intelligence..."

 

4. C. Plant and E. Minium, 1967

The more intelligent students were less religious, both before entering

college and after 2 years of college.

 

5.  Norman Poythress, 1975

Mean SATs for strongly antireligious (1148), moderately anti-

religious (1119), slightly antireligious (1108), and religious (1022).

 

there are a ton of studies like these out there and they all say the same: smart people don't believe in god... :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

"a ton of studies"? There are also innumerable evidences that many of the greatest minds in History were theists.

 

Perhaps a better conclusion would have been "Some studies show that many 20th Century academic high acheivers are atheists".

 

I will add that Academic acheivement is not the universal measurement for intelligence. If you don't believe me, try competing for survival in the jungle against one of the locals, and see who is more intelligent in that setting...

 

I pose to you a question, how many countries based on Atheism are free, happy, prosperous nations compared to the nations that are predominantly theistic?

 

I encourage belief in God even if its only purpose is to curb man's arrogant self-centeredness.

[Sarjahurmaaja.]

"in the engineering world, where some of the smartest individuals you'd ever care to meet exist, the populace is mixed in terms of beliefs. most (75% or so) actually fall into the middle somewhere believing in god but not necessarily religion (there is a difference). given that 95% of the world population believes in a higher power, it's pretty easy to see the problem with such 'studies.'"

 

But doesn't that mean that engineers are less god believing than the rest of the world? I mean, 75% is a hell of a lot less than 95%.