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Are atheists smarter, on average, compared to religious people?

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Unless God or whoever is somehow handing out IQ points(in this case, I've been scammed outta my fair share), I don't really see how intelligence is rated off of religion. The argument that atheists do more questioning as opposed to accepting what they're told really isn't a very good one. One could argue that religious people are more intelligent because they have experience traversing across complex doctrine, contemplate multiple interpretations, and have discussions on multiple texts. For every argument that implies religion is a backface to intelligence, there's an argument that implies the religion is promoting intelligent actions.

Christian - 1500 but this was after the re-centering and because I studied my a$$ off.
 
i think he's trying to imply that people who are "smart enough" to not believe in god, are people who would do well in the SAT. I dont really go to church that much, but i believe in god. I was baptised a catholic bu ti guess i just believe in most christian beliefs. I probably should look more into it, i guess i'm religious but not very much and not hardcore at all.


anyways.... as for the numbers 1560, and well religious . i dont take everything as truth but i do believe in the general ideas. I took it once, i took some practice tests. i think a lot of the test is about calmness , not being nervous about tests though . like if you read fairly much and know basic math anyone should be able to get in the 1300s i'd say if they just relax so they dont make mistakes. the relaxing is probably the most important thing, not religion or some other thing that doesnt at all corellate
 
One could argue that religious people are more intelligent because they have experience traversing across complex doctrine, contemplate multiple interpretations, and have discussions on multiple texts.

well i'd have to say that it would depend on your relationship with religion. i know religious people like that, but i also know religious people who don't really do all that stuff you just said... they just read the bible, listen to the preacher, and that's it.

jesuits are pretty damned smart from what i've heard.
 
Agnostic people are the 'smart' people. Theists and Atheists are the same people, except for one minor detail (theists accept one religion), so they both suffer from blind faith.

It's not known whether blind faith actually prohibits 'intelligence', but it's a fact that blind faith can interfere with it.
 


<< Go look @ the results, then come back and try to talk. >>

Dude, everyone who said this was an ignorant question was right. Go outside, get a breath of fresh air and come back in and get ahold of your insecurities. Most people take the SATs in their 11th grade. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you're probably beyond help right now.
 
yea, i'm agnostic and atheist. i think it's really rare for somebody to be just agnostic, because it's one thing to accept that it could go either way, but it's pretty hard imho, to say that you have no opinion one way or another.
 
btw guys, the poll hasn't shown that one group gets higher scores than the other, at least not that i've noticed. please don't get angry at the poll 🙂
 


<< Agnostic people are the 'smart' people. Theists and Atheists are the same people, except for one minor detail (theists accept one religion), so they both suffer from blind faith. >>



I don't really see atheism as having blind faith. At least no more blind faith than someone not believing in things like Santa, Odin, etc. There's no evidence for it so it's easy just to discard the belief in it.
 
Well, I was thinking to myself "I bet the average person on anandtech is smarter than the average person you'd find at a supermarket." Then I looked at some of the religion polls, 40% atheist here approximately. According to popular belief, atheists constitute 11% of the US population. Think about that.


Somebody respond? Anybody?
 
The results look to be about even. You?re just as bad as the people knocking on the door wanting me to convert. I can see you?re proud to be an atheist but what are you trying to prove you can?t compare a person?s belief with their intelligence. 😛
 


<<

<< Agnostic people are the 'smart' people. Theists and Atheists are the same people, except for one minor detail (theists accept one religion), so they both suffer from blind faith. >>



I don't really see atheism as having blind faith. At least no more blind faith than someone not believing in things like Santa, Odin, etc. There's no evidence for it so it's easy just to discard the belief in it. >>


Is there reason to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.
Is there reason NOT to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.

Presto: agnosticism 🙂
 
Is there reason to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.
Is there reason NOT to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.

Presto: agnosticism 🙂

yea, but you can also have your own suspicions. can you honestly say that you don't *believe* one way or another? you can believe in one thing and recognize that it might not be the right one...
 
So what you're really trying to say but wont is that you think you re smarter than 89% of the population by popular belief. Why don?t you just admit the only reason you asked the question was you got tired of stroking your own ego and wanted to have a circle jerk. 🙂
 
lol, you really can't have a solid argument about religion here. Simply read the convo. If you believe in god, you might as well believe in santa claus. Seriously, how ignorant can you be?
 


<< Is there reason to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.
Is there reason NOT to believe in supernatural beings? Nope.

Presto: agnosticism 🙂 >>



True but that doesn't mean there's blind faith involved if you don't believe in a god.



<< lol, you really can't have a solid argument about religion here. Simply read the convo. If you believe in god, you might as well believe in santa claus. Seriously, how ignorant can you be? >>



Probably not as ignorant as you.
 
I think you have to differentiate between intellectual atheists and lazy atheists.
Intellectual atheists don't accept the current religions because of inconsistencies, or a desire to find their own answers. These tend to be smarter.
The lazy atheists just never bothered to think about religion, or to at least educate themselves about what's out there. They just don't care either way. These are usually the dumb ones.
So some Atheists are smarter than religious people, some are dumber.
Also, the same way there are lazy and itellectual Christians. The intellectual Christians accept scientific discoveries that might contradict their religion, and then try to explain it in terms of their religion. The lazy Christians just ignore any scientific evidence contradictory to their belief. Like this on girl in my high school who would plug her ears every time the bio teacher talked about evolution.
 


<< [well i'd have to say that it would depend on your relationship with religion. i know religious people like that, but i also know religious people who don't really do all that stuff you just said... they just read the bible, listen to the preacher, and that's it.

jesuits are pretty damned smart from what i've heard. >>



But there are an awful lot of atheists who are atheist because their outlook is, I don't wanna go to church or deal with that whole thing. Like I said, for every argument for, there's an argument against, and vice versa.



<< Well, I was thinking to myself "I bet the average person on anandtech is smarter than the average person you'd find at a supermarket." Then I looked at some of the religion polls, 40% atheist here approximately. According to popular belief, atheists constitute 11% of the US population. Think about that. >>



What's to respond to? Atheists have a higher presence on Anandtech ergo, they must be smarter? I think you need to look at the numbers again. This is assuming that people who frequent anandtech are a section of the population within the upper echelon in terms of intelligence. This being a given, you pluck out an Anandtechie and you have a 60% chance they are religious. The religious populace here outnumbers the non-religious populace. The implication from this figure is that religious people are smarter than non-religious people, just not by the degree that we see in general. The only way to make this argument work is to say that there exists a minority of Anandtechies(40%) who are intellelectually superior to the majority of anand's little community. This, however, cannot be stated because then you aren't taking an average. You're just pickign out examples which support your hypothesis from a larger context. It's like if I said the average teenager is less technologically adept than the average adult, then supporting it by giving examples of all the experienced people in the IT world. Here, I haven't used to average as one of the bases for my comparison, but a more selective and technologically experienced group.
 


<< lol, you really can't have a solid argument about religion here. Simply read the convo. If you believe in god, you might as well believe in santa claus. Seriously, how ignorant can you be? >>


Until one has collected sufficient evidence to reject the possibility that supernatural beings can exist, one should not do so prematurely..

There's enough evidence to show that Santa can not exist, thus one can safely dismiss the possibility.

Dismissing the possibility that there are things we are not yet aware of is just as ignorant as believing in something of which the existance is everything but certain. In both cases the diagnosis reads 'blind faith'.
 


<< I think you have to differentiate between intellectual atheists and lazy atheists.
Intellectual atheists don't accept the current religions because of inconsistencies, or a desire to find their own answers. These tend to be smarter. >>

Good point, I hadn't even thought about that yet 🙂

Hmm.. but aren't these 'intelligent' atheist actually closer to being agnostic?


<< The lazy atheists just never bothered to think about religion, or to at least educate themselves about what's out there. They just don't care either way. These are usually the dumb ones. >>

Blind faith, 'nuff said.


<< So some Atheists are smarter than religious people, some are dumber.
Also, the same way there are lazy and itellectual Christians. The intellectual Christians accept scientific discoveries that might contradict their religion, and then try to explain it in terms of their religion. >>


*shivers*

I've something against people trying to explain an observation or discovery to make it fit an ideology. It's not a good thing in my eyes.


<< The lazy Christians just ignore any scientific evidence contradictory to their belief. Like this on girl in my high school who would plug her ears every time the bio teacher talked about evolution. >>

:Q
 
ok, maybe if I make it simpler, you will understand. Agree or disagree with the following

1. The average member of this forum, is smarter than the average person walking down the street.
2. Statistically speaking, 11% of the nation is atheist (www.atheists.org)
3. Statistically speaking, 40% of the people on anandtech are atheist... (forum poll, just do a search)


The average atheist, is smarter than the average religious person.

EDIT: So what I'm saying is, people here are smarter than the general population, AND, there is a greater concentration of atheists. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. My friends in honors dorms notice the same thing, there are a lot of atheists. This forum is the "honors dorm" so to speak, of the internet.
 


<< There's enough evidence to show that Santa can not exist, thus one can safely dismiss the possibility. >>



Actually there's no real evidence to suggest that Santa doesn't exist. Sure Santa might have to defy a few laws of physics to deliver all the presents in just one night but really wouldn't a god defy the laws of the universe?
 
I would be careful with calling certain groups of people 'smarter'. I think we've all seen what can happen if one group considers themselves to be '&Uuml;bermenschen'.

 
How do you know this forum isn?t populated by a bunch of computer literate morons? Where are you getting your information? Pulling statistics out of your ass isn?t going to prove your point.😉
 
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