And everyone here says, No Shit Sherlock.

[Feral Dog]

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

[ironbite]

K and what are your feelings on the matter?

[Osama bin Bambi]

I have several objections to this study:

1. It uses IQ tests as a measure of intelligence, which have long been criticized as inaccurate (and possibly biased for certain socioeconomic or linguistic factors). (See here.)

2. There is a direct correlation between religiosity and levels of education, as the article acknowledges that "more intelligent people are [...] more likely to be successful in life," however you define intelligence. The less religious children in the study also had more access to higher education, which goes a long way in helping people avoid spiritual explanations for mundane phenomena. Even an unusually bright child will probably not be a religious skeptic if they live an isolated life without any education about the outside world.

TL;DR: Don't take this at face value as an indication that atheists, agnostics, etc. are somehow smarter. The factors that play into someone's intelligence, as well as their religiosity, don't occur in a vacuum and shouldn't be chalked up to a single number.

[Feral Dog]

^^ My apologies. I was so excited for a mainstream news story about atheists that didn't veer into how we're all unhappy/unfulfilled because we have nothing to believe in that I just went "Woohoo! Gotta share this one!" without a second thought.

[Søren]

 Please dont just put links in posts by themselves, its asked on here to put a comment or summary with the link

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Frankly I'm not an atheist because I want to feel like a smug bastard. I'm an atheist because the pro-God folks didn't convince me that their position was correct, I still rather like some church music and old churches - York Minster is awesome.

Like the look of the new forums, thanks for keeping it alive.

[anti-nonsense]

I'm an atheist because every argument I've ever seen for god's existence had logical fallacies, and every religion ever disagrees with observed scientific fact, and I am not constitutionally capable of ignoring that kind of thing in favour of believing things just because it would be nice if they were true.

[PosthumanHeresy]

I'm an atheist because religion violates logic, and if there is any god or gods or goddess or goddesses and they have the power to change the world but they do not, they are assholes. The level of evil and cruelty in the world is sickening. I can't believe that there is a being or beings that would let it happen. If the Christians are right, I would rather be on Satan's side.

[KZN02]

I'm an atheist because religion violates logic, and if there is any god or gods or goddess or goddesses and they have the power to change the world but they do not, they are assholes.

Or they're lazy, preoccupied, or are watching us for their own amusement.

[Feral Dog]

Or they're lazy, preoccupied, or are watching us for their own amusement.

Like Sims?

[Valerius]

I'm an atheist because I was never raised to be religious. My parents didn't even mention god or religion until I was old enough to think for myself and form my own opinion. I've never converted to any religion because:

I'm an atheist because every argument I've ever seen for god's existence had logical fallacies, and every religion ever disagrees with observed scientific fact, and I am not constitutionally capable of ignoring that kind of thing in favour of believing things just because it would be nice if they were true.

This.

I'm an atheist because religion violates logic, and if there is any god or gods or goddess or goddesses and they have the power to change the world but they do not, they are assholes. The level of evil and cruelty in the world is sickening. I can't believe that there is a being or beings that would let it happen. If the Christians are right, I would rather be on Satan's side.

And this.

Also, I just find the idea of gods and the supernatural to be hilariously childish and silly.

[Askold]

Well I'm a theist but although I find this study interesting I'd like to see more research on the matter.

What I see from the article seems to be a suggestion that religion is only a crutch that people use when they lack self control (obey these laws) or love (Don't worry about not being married, at least God loves you) but I don't think that is all that religions provide.

[Lithp]

Well, the thing I note is that there are a lot of studies that say basically the same thing. Atheism is correlated with IQ, it's correlated with level of education, it's correlated with knowledge of religion...I don't know exactly what actual, real world trend that these studies are picking up on, but they're clearly picking up on something, & we're not likely to find out one day that all of those studies were wrong, & there's actually no significant connection between general knowledge & atheism.

Maybe it's not implicit to atheism itself, but theism. A lot of religions actively discourage open-mindedness, because then you might change your mind. If that wasn't the case, then maybe religious people, as a group, would score higher on these things.

And again, group vs. individual. If the article implies that religion is for stupid people, which I don't know because I did not read it, well, that's obviously wrong.

[PosthumanHeresy]

I wonder if it isn't that stupid people turn to religion, but being brainwashed into religion, especially at a young age, causes sometimes permanent damage to the mind.

[Sleepy]

If religion is a major part of your life from a young age, then you're more likely to be close-minded about it because it's second nature to you. It's what you know, it's what you grew up with, and a lot of people can't take criticism of something that they've believed their whole lives.