Grimm might like this: Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Honey · June 12th, 2008, 06:31 PM

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

AP
Professor Lynn said religious belief had declined in the 20th century

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.
A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.
But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.
A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.
Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.
He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."
He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.
"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.
Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".
Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God' - Telegraph

Grimmlok · June 12th, 2008, 06:34 PM

uh, religion IS primitive. Ever seen a south american rainforest tribe dancing around chicken bones?

How is going to church any different. It's all superstition.

bychance · June 13th, 2008, 06:26 AM

Quote:

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

Don't believe it.

sputnik · June 13th, 2008, 06:31 AM

i believe it. and i believe it's not just about IQ, it might have even more to do with the level of education.

McJag · June 13th, 2008, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sputnik

i believe it. and i believe it's not just about IQ, it might have even more to do with the level of education.

Whoa,Sput! Got to point out,just in my family-we have everything from a rocket scientist to engineers to bank president,as well as teachers (professor of chemistry for 1). All are religious or at least belivers! And then there are 7 doctors in total I am kin to-most first cousins. Everything from a psychiatrist to a cancer reasearch doctor at Chicago. They attend church and certainly pray regularly. None are nut cases or cram-it-down-your-throat religious,thank heavens! Not one athethist among them. Now,we do have some-but they are not the highest educated by a long shot.
I think this piece is is a bit narrow in scope. Everytime I examine a rose or see a butterfly I marvel. Lots of surgeons will tell you they can tell if people are praying for a particular patient. This piece just doesn't stack up to what I personally have dealt with or known.

Allie · June 13th, 2008, 08:58 AM

I am a non-religious person who believes in God. Does that make me stupid? I can recite the alphabet backwards.

AllieCat · June 13th, 2008, 10:26 AM

I think it's more of the people out there who have to have a solid reason for the ways of the universe. Like those who believe in evolution or the "Big bang Theory". They have to have an answer for how the earth is the marvel that it is, and some being that has "no begining and no end" in the sky isn't going to cut it for some.

Allie · June 13th, 2008, 11:25 AM

Just looking at the grandness of the universe amazes me, that is my rationale for a belief in a higher power. Be that God, or aliens with intelligence beyond our comprehension. Whatever! Air exists, but we don't see it. We just know it's there. You know?

Charlotte · June 13th, 2008, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McJag

Whoa,Sput! Got to point out,just in my family-we have everything from a rocket scientist to engineers to bank president,as well as teachers (professor of chemistry for 1). All are religious or at least belivers! And then there are 7 doctors in total I am kin to-most first cousins. Everything from a psychiatrist to a cancer reasearch doctor at Chicago. They attend church and certainly pray regularly. None are nut cases or cram-it-down-your-throat religious,thank heavens! Not one athethist among them. Now,we do have some-but they are not the highest educated by a long shot.
I think this piece is is a bit narrow in scope. Everytime I examine a rose or see a butterfly I marvel. Lots of surgeons will tell you they can tell if people are praying for a particular patient. This piece just doesn't stack up to what I personally have dealt with or known.

It said that more intelligent people were less likely to believe in a deity, not that all intelligent people disbelieve. It's interesting to note that the most notable academics consider themselves athesist at a rate far higher than the national average.

Interestingly enough on the praying issue, there was a huge ten-year study a couple of back conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers in conjunction with other medical experts. They compared the prognoses of three groups of patients who were being prayed for (two groups: patients aware and unaware) against those who weren't, and the group that knew they were being prayed for actually actually had far more complications than the other two groups. In comparing the group that wasn't being prayed for and the group that was, but was unware, there was no difference in occurence of complications or recovery periods.

Grimmlok · June 13th, 2008, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allie

Just looking at the grandness of the universe amazes me, that is my rationale for a belief in a higher power. Be that God, or aliens with intelligence beyond our comprehension. Whatever! Air exists, but we don't see it. We just know it's there. You know?

Air is measurable. God isn't.

bychance · June 13th, 2008, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllieCat

I think it's more of the people out there who have to have a solid reason for the ways of the universe. Like those who believe in evolution or the "Big bang Theory". They have to have an answer for how the earth is the marvel that it is, and some being that has "no begining and no end" in the sky isn't going to cut it for some.

See, my stance is...the 'big bang theory' is just as flawed, and cannot be entirely proven as some arrogant atheists like to think.