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[deadlock]

Check it out: Wikipedia's "Religiousness and intelligence" articleWhat do people think about this? I'm particularly interested in how religious people would explain why intelligent people are so much more likely to be secular than the average person. The "Interpretations" section of the article gives some explanations for this trend, but none of

Comments

[lonesumlogician]

If I was raised in a religious enviroment and learned about Christ before math and science, I would remain religious even if I was very intelligent. For many, Christianity has become an integral part of their life. To question it would shake the very foundations of their identity. Some can break out of it. But it takes a lot of courage. You're essentially trading eternal salvation for truth and there's no trade-backs.

Regardless, there's nothing wrong with this. I used to have an urge to convince Christians that they were wrong, but I think that would be a disservice to them. It's like telling a little kid there's no Santa Claus.

[deadlock]

These are good points. Christians find a lot of happiness in their faith. They tend to be more charitable and all-around nicer to others, as well. These are obviously good things

[lonesumlogician]

They tend to advocate equal time for teaching both creationism and evolution in school. This, I believe, could have negative economic consequences for the United States. While students in more secular countries, like China and Japan, are learning to appreciate and employ genuine scientific methods, students in the US are learning pseudo-science.

If it's just evolution they're disputing, that might not be that detrimental to our science and economy. Believing in creationism, won't make you a very good biologist, but you can still be a good computer programmer, engineer, statistician, investment banker, etc. I'm fine with teaching creationism as long as they state that it's a belief, not a fact.

Christian conservatives tend to be in favor of limiting the rights of gays and lesbians. They also promote the myth that sexual orientation is a choice, which many people use to justify their contempt for gay people. ("It's okay to hate gays because they chose to be that way.")I think that's more of an issue of homophobia, not Christianity

[conniving]

Agreed. I think it is more than terrible that a lot of Christians have given Christianity a bad name with regards to homosexuals... Christians that express hatred for gays have absolutely missed the point. Jesus taught love and acceptance of others (not neccessarily of their actions, but a love and genuine compassion for all people, not merely the "pure" and "relatively sinless"). Christians are sinners, too, and I think we forget that too often and are too quick to condemn others when we should be worrying about our own actions.

Interesting

[nunce]

I am not a genious by any means. That's always a good thing to say first. I would simply say that many people much smarter than I am who have truly sought the truth about Christianity have come to interesting conclusions...C.S. Lewis is an example. I think that God gave us intelligence and the ability for scientific thought. I think at the heart of all science and intelligence is the master creator and if one truly questions and studies Christianity he will find the truth in it. However, a hardened heart will keep anyone from seeing what is true, and I believe God is the one who has the ability to softe n hearts to him, and thus, if it hasn't happened, you can probably fight tooth and nail against Christianity and not see the scientific and logical truth it holds...but that really brings up a different debate

[conniving]

That was a really interesting article... it was funny to see the "stop" sign at the top designating the article as one with a potential lack of neutrality... I don't think I've ever seen that on Wikipedia before

[deadlock]

What might the percentage of "ignorant" people that are atheists, versus agnostics, versus religious be? In the older studies sections it says that the SAT scores were inversely related to religiousness, but it didn't list any specifics... not that specifics would make it more credible, I'm just curious. Maybe you would see a similar percentage of nonreligious to religious people regardless of intellectual level (or maybe a more conclusive study would find results that would be a bit more even).When they say "inversely related" they mean that as intelligence goes up, religiousness goes down. Thus, at lower levels of intelligence they found relatively higher levels of religiousness. I suspect the studies found that the overall proportion of religious-to-secular was as described at the top of the article where it says

[ex_achiever626]

I agree with you and feel the same way you outlined in your last paragraph

[conniving]

I think the problem here is the people. The ignorance and ridiculous actions of the ELCA or any other Christian group or person should not reflect upon God or the Bible. Sure they are "God's ambassadors" if you will, but they're still people.

And by the way, Grant, I agree with nearly everything you said.

[conniving]

Also, one of the interpretations listed in the article I can see as being true. "...more intelligent people are more successful and thus have less need for religion." While people might not need religion, they do still need God (side note: Christianity is certainly much more that the stupid American church. I think a lot of churches are totally missing the point when it comes to "religion"... totally different topic here), but I can see how in this life, people that are smart and wealthy can find or buy their own communities of happiness, thereby eliminating what the Church has to offer for this life. The only part that they are missing, here, then, is the eternal perspective, which is so much more important than the here and now

[arabstrapbelle]

"Why should someone believe such an unlikely tale?"

Some would say the fact that we exist at all is very unlikely. Hence, I'm agnostic.

[deadlock]

I'm agnostic as well. I believe it is easy to find reasons to doubt anything, including atheism. (see: Philosophical skepticism)