Is It Smart to Believe in God?

[damnedifIknow]

It has long been speculated that religious belief and intelligence are negatively correlated. In a review of 43 studies conducted by Bell (2002), it was found that all but four showed a negative correlation."

*This data is explained in a variety of ways, although most speculate that people of higher intelligence are more skeptical and prone to ask questions rather than accept faith blindly. The scientists conducting this experiment believe that religion is a social construct designed to explain the unexplainable and to serve as a justice system where previously there was none. But in the modern era, people are less reliant on religion and becoming more reliant on science."

http://uber-facts.com/2013/01/09/theres-a-negative-correlation-between-religion-and-iq/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. let's see. If I spend a great deal of each day, praying to

a mythical critter that cloned woman out of a rib of some dude he fashioned out of mud, and then had his hatred of kids show through by sending his baby god to be born again, just to be nailed to a plank, being told to be afraid, being warned that if I don't do EVERYTHING THAT THE PREACHER DEMANDS OF ME in the name of that mythical critter, including tithing to the preacher, that I will burn in hell.

vs.

reading a good book, catching up on sleep, having a good v=conversation with my partner, or making a nice sit down meal.

Yeah, I can honestly say it is not smart to believe in god.

[progressoid]

2. The US' national IQ is 98?

There are few exceptions to the linear relationship between IQ and religious belief although a few should be noted. The two most outlying countries are Cuba and Vietnam which both have higher percentages of general disbelief (40 percent and 81 percent respectively) which would not be expected by analysis of their national IQs of 85 and 94 respectively. This anomaly was attributed to the fact that former or current communist countries are known to utilize strong atheist propaganda. Also, the United States is noted as being highly religious (only 10.5 percent are recorded as not believing in God), when compared to the national IQ of 98. This reflects a general trend among North West and Central European countries.

http://neuro-cloud.net/blog/buff-brains-blog/42-is-it-smart-to-believe-in-god/

Wonder how that is determined?

[BlueJazz]

3. I'm sure they are out there but I've never met an Atheist that wasn't (at least) pretty smart.

[RebelOne]

6. Totally correct. My father was an atheist

and had an above genius IQ. He was an inventor. He had read the bible many times and said that it was a very filthy book. Unfortunately, I am living in Georgia and there are not many atheists here, but the few I have come in contact with were extremely intelligent.

My daughter is also an atheist. She is a teacher in South Florida. She studied for her bachelors degree while married, managing a household, working full time, going to school at night and raising two adopted daughters. Last year, she earned her master's degree.

I cannot say that I am a genius. I did not even finish high school, because I was married at 16 and then divorced at 25. My ex did not pay child support. But I managed to always work at fairly decent jobs. Then I became a typesetter, and when I moved to Georgia, I worked as a typesetter and was finally elevated to the position of copy editor. When I retired in 2010, I was copy-editing 30 outdoors magazines published all over the U.S. Not bad for someone who never completed high school. My fellow copy-editor coworkers were all college graduates.

[Bradical79]

7. Ive met one

He'd decided the Ancient Aliens guys were much more reasonable.

[BlueJazz]

8. Well...at least I'd give him credit for knowing who "the Ancient Aliens" were.

Change that to Supposedly were...

Any race advanced enough to "get around the Light-speed thing" wouldn't give us a second glance...

[trotsky]

9. Tweaking the old John Stuart Mill quote about conservatives seems to work:

Although it is not true that all religious people are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are religious.

[BlueJazz]

10. I like your Dawkins Quote. Ain't it the truth.

One of my acquaintances, after finding out I'm an atheist, asked me: "What IS your purpose on this planet"
I said: There's nice people and not-so-nice people and I'm too fucking lazy to find out who is who, so I'm nice to everybody...it saves time.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I am not willing to judge smarts based on belief in God.

Personally, I would love to think that I am smarter than most of the other people who I know. But I don't think that is the case, at least with some people. I think that it comes down to your upbringing as well as your personality more than intelligence. Some people are much more philosophical than others. I believe that some of us just think about things more than others. It isn't really IQ, it is personality. If someone who is not a questioning type, and they are raised with a belief in God, I don't think that they spend much time thinking about it.

[dimbear]

5. In some professions it is: politician, for example.

Or at least say you do.