Athiests more intelligent than believers

[Andre3Stacks]

LONDON: People with higher intelligence quotients are less likely to believe in God because they have questioning minds, a new study has revealed.

Researchers, led by Professor Richard Lynn of Ulster University, have found a link between intelligence and atheism — in fact, according to them, university academics are less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

“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,” leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph quoted Prof Lynn as saying.

He has based his conclusion on a survey of Royal Society fellows which found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God — at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general British population described themselves as “believers”.

According to Prof Lynn, most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence a large number of them started to have doubts.

Moreover, he said that religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.


But critics have flayed the study results published in the latest edition of the Intelligence journal. Prof Gordon Lynch of 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,” he said.

[LockeOut]

rofl @ ur sig


and wowzers at this article.



Im not gonna say n e thing on it.



But im an athiest.

[zeekss]

yeah this is pretty obvious..a lot of believer are widely ignorant to a lot of things

[Marquee_]

Sometimes Faith is not knowing any better. Sometimes nothing is what you believe in.

[andyp]

LONDON: People with higher intelligence quotients are less likely to believe in God because they have questioning minds, a new study has revealed.

Researchers, led by Professor Richard Lynn of Ulster University, have found a link between intelligence and atheism — in fact, according to them, university academics are less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

“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,” leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph quoted Prof Lynn as saying.

He has based his conclusion on a survey of Royal Society fellows which found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God — at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general British population described themselves as “believers”.

According to Prof Lynn, most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence a large number of them started to have doubts.

Moreover, he said that religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.


But critics have flayed the study results published in the latest edition of the Intelligence journal. Prof Gordon Lynch of 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,” he said.

Lmao... um... and?

[Charlie Br0wn™]

The moment you have imaginary friends...your state of mentality becomes questionable.

[zeekss]

Sometimes Faith is not knowing any better. Sometimes nothing is what you believe in.

True

[tdot_ny]

i ran into the same info the other day when I was doing some reasearch on cognitive behaviours and intelligence. It was pretty interesting to say the least. as for whether or not i have a reserve of about 90% of my unused brain to entertain such things as well as render my pleasure/pain reward centre useless at the same time is a question for the neurologist and the neuroscientist. but i think neither the untrained student or untrained teacher are either qualified to base findings that have a real material consequence on scientifically unproven information.
the truth must be something along the lines of the more man searches the more he finds......happy seeking???

[AerialMind]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that.
I honestly find Athiests/Agnostics to be more open minded than Believers.

[andyp]

Have you ever noticed that atheists tend to be far more obsessed with god/religion than religious people are?

[GTP]

^^^
I never understood that, why are they so determined to prove that ALLAH doesn't exist.

[Name]

The reason it seems that way is because the only time you know someone is an atheist is when they're talking about religion. Nothing else gives them away (other than the fact that they're not thanking Jesus for everything). It's an illusion.

I very rarely talk about religion myself (mostly only on the internet). I really have no reason to, and I kind of resent the type of atheists who tend to bring it up for no reason

[theLOVEDone]

I think religion creates fear for those in a scientific background. Their lives revolve around truths and things that can be proven. Religion is an uncertainty. It requires you to believe undoubtingly in something that can never be proven to a mass society. For them to believe in science as well as religion seems to them to be a contradiction. However, as a believer, I feel I should state that the big bang theory is a theory, just as the existance of God is a theory. Neither has been proven and neither can be.

[AlexCCCP]

Out of the blue just to say that ROFL Big bang is theory, it supported by fact and logic
Existence of god not a theory, no basis

SHIIIIIIILACK

[Hispanista]

I must indulge in the question of what, precisely, constitutes intelligence. I have little doubt that the answers will vary, and, consequently, it would not be incorrect to suggest that it is a matter of great subjectivity. The article would, of course, imply that the chosen measure of intelligence is the subject's IQ. It need not be stated that the methodology and accuracy of intelligence quotient tests can, and have been at great length, appropriately questioned and argued against.

Nevertheless, it is agreeable that those who question the existence of god exhibit greater objectivity and, perhaps, rationale, collectively, than the religious. Religion, to me, is equatable to superstition, and I have always found superstition to be a thing of the peasantry. That says nothing about the intelligence of the religious, withal, unless one were to consider objectivity paramount to the measure of intelligence.

My final word, for the moment, on the subject would be to suggest that those who trust too heavily in the existence of god are no less foolish than those who deny him too zealously. The truly intelligent religious devotee, in my most humble opinion, is the one who accepts his ignorance and acknowledges faith for what it is, as the truly intelligent atheist does the same.

[Marquee_]

Out of the blue just to say that ROFL Big bang is theory, it supported by fact and logic
Existence of god not a theory, no basis

SHIIIIIIILACK

Some have also argued with facts and logic that the big bang never happened.