Atheists more Intelligent

[ThatOwlWoman]

Agree. There are plenty of "Christians" who are happy to gas a group of innocent Americans for a photo op with a prop Bible. Is there any doubt there are some like him in this forum? Those who talk the talk but obviously don't walk the walk?

I've only seen maybe one or two Xtians here who truly represent Christ. The rest are pompous false prophet blowhards.

Mourning the deaths of others came long before organized religions....and even before Homo Sapiens. Neanderthals ritualistically buried their dead at least 70,000 years ago.

Many non-human species also mourn their dead. This wonderful book was an assigned text in one of my classes. But I read it just for the pleasure of this knowledge.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Elephants-Weep-Emotional-Animals/dp/0385314280

 

[Dutch Uncle]

According to reputable polling, the most highly educated people in the country come from the religious groups Jews, Anglicans, Hindus, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Buddhists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ. With athesists and agnostics coming in 9th and 10th place respectively.

Bringing up the rear, in the dumb ass category, are the southern evangelicals and fundamentalists

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/s...ucated-Religious-Groups&p=2575568#post2575568

I think you are on the right track. Notice the studies don't address "Atheism" or particular religions but "religiosity". In short, how firmly a person believes a particular religion.

Here's my favorite example: A person who believes so firmly in "religiosity" that they think the Earth is only 6000 years old and that Jonah was swallowed by a whale for three days. They believe Adam and Eve were the first man and woman then had incest with their children to create the people of the Earth until God committed mass murder except to Noah, who had his family and all the land creatures of the Earth on his little wooden boat.

If comparing the IQ of that person to a Paleontologist or an evolutionary Biologist and I'd bet money the Paleontologist and Biologist have higher IQs.

 

[Jack]

I am not happy that you have chosen the cult of atheism, pray you will see the light some day, just like all the others here who refuse to acknowledge God!

Agnostic. I don't pretend to know what happens after the grave. I deal with this Life ... here and now. If there's a 'Level II', I'll deal with THAT Life when I get there.

"Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable.Wikipedia"

 

[Cypress]

I think you are on the right track. Notice the studies don't address "Atheism" or particular religions but "religiosity". In short, how firmly a person believes a particular religion.

Here's my favorite example: A person who believes so firmly in "religiosity" that they think the Earth is only 6000 years old and that Jonah was swallowed by a whale for three days. They believe Adam and Eve were the first man and woman then had incest with their children to create the people of the Earth until God committed mass murder except to Noah, who had his family and all the land creatures of the Earth on his little wooden boat.

If comparing the IQ of that person to a Paleontologist or an evolutionary Biologist and I'd bet money the Paleontologist and Biologist have higher IQs.

I actually know PhD level theoretical physicists, engineers, geologists who are evangelical Christians. Being evangelical does not necessarily make one a young earther. So while statistics and polling can identify broad social trends, at the individual level I have always found extraordinary diversity of religious and educational values people hold

 

[katzgar]

According to reputable polling, the most highly educated people in the country come from the religious groups Jews, Anglicans, Hindus, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Buddhists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ. With athesists and agnostics coming in 9th and 10th place respectively.

Bringing up the rear, in the dumb ass category, are the southern evangelicals and fundamentalists

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/s...ucated-Religious-Groups&p=2575568#post2575568

you are confusing educated and intelligent, they are different

 

[Dutch Uncle]

I've only seen maybe one or two Xtians here who truly represent Christ. The rest are pompous false prophet blowhards.

Many non-human species also mourn their dead. This wonderful book was an assigned text in one of my classes. But I read it just for the pleasure of this knowledge.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Elephants-Weep-Emotional-Animals/dp/0385314280

Comparative psychology studies are interesting insights to the human mind. Yes, elephants mourn their dead. Obviously they don't bury them with flowers much less embalm them or put them on a funeral pyre.

Emotions are our base selves, our most animalistic selves. It's rising above our emotions and using reason that makes human beings so different than the other animals. Dogs and cats may hate some people and like others without an obvious reason. They can hate other animals too, again with no obvious reason.

When people are experiencing strong emotions or letting their emotions rule their head, they are being illogical, unreasonable. Tell a girlfriend her new boyfriend is bad for her and she's more likely to dump you than her new love. Tell some men Trump is a lying POS draft-dodging coward and they'll turn various shades of red and purple then let loose with a string of ad hominems that would make a sailor blush. At that point, they are just animals, not logical, reasonable human beings.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

According to reputable polling, the most highly educated people in the country come from the religious groups Jews, Anglicans, Hindus, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Buddhists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ. With athesists and agnostics coming in 9th and 10th place respectively.

Bringing up the rear, in the dumb ass category, are the southern evangelicals and fundamentalists

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/s...ucated-Religious-Groups&p=2575568#post2575568

you are confusing educated and intelligent, they are different

Not the way he used it as educated people know. Dumbasses can't become "highly educated" because they are unable to attain that level of education no matter what opportunities they are given. Trump is an excellent example of that limit.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

I actually know PhD level theoretical physicists, engineers, geologists who are evangelical Christians. Being evangelical does not necessarily make one a young earther. So while statistics and polling can identify broad social trends, at the individual level I have always found extraordinary diversity of religious and educational values people hold

A key question would be to ask them about their thoughts on Genesis: Parable or scientific fact?

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Agnostic. I don't pretend to know what happens after the grave. I deal with this Life ... here and now. If there's a 'Level II', I'll deal with THAT Life when I get there.

"Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable.Wikipedia"

Agnosticism is the best, most logical position: I don't know and, unless one is proven over the other, I can't know.

 

[Jack]

Agnosticism is the best, most logical position: I don't know and, unless one is proven over the other, I can't know.

That's what it comes down to.

 

[Cypress]

A key question would be to ask them about their thoughts on Genesis: Parable or scientific fact?

I would be reticent to ask colleagues and peers a question like that.

My impression is that many Christian scientists would view the bible as being allegory and metaphor, rather than literal written history.

 

[Cypress]

you are confusing educated and intelligent, they are different

It is possible for a stupid person to fake their way through college. But I know very few genuinely stupid people who have masters degrees.

But I am responding to what you wrote. You literally wrote that no one who believes in God can have critical thinking skills. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Joe Biden are practicing Christians. Do they lack critical thinking skills?

 

[Wolverine]

Agnostic. I don't pretend to know what happens after the grave. I deal with this Life ... here and now. If there's a 'Level II', I'll deal with THAT Life when I get there.

"Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable.Wikipedia"

Problem is you can't DEAL with it afterword according to what the Bible says! Great thing is God gave you free will to decide!

 

[Wolverine]

I think you are on the right track. Notice the studies don't address "Atheism" or particular religions but "religiosity". In short, how firmly a person believes a particular religion.

Here's my favorite example: A person who believes so firmly in "religiosity" that they think the Earth is only 6000 years old and that Jonah was swallowed by a whale for three days. They believe Adam and Eve were the first man and woman then had incest with their children to create the people of the Earth until God committed mass murder except to Noah, who had his family and all the land creatures of the Earth on his little wooden boat.

If comparing the IQ of that person to a Paleontologist or an evolutionary Biologist and I'd bet money the Paleontologist and Biologist have higher IQs.

The Bible doesn't say whale! It says great fish!

So then the paleontologist or biologist can think their way right into hell according to the scripture I shared! Just leave People live their lives how they see fit! By the way two of my best friends are the smartest Men when it came to learning in school neither had common sense! Still great guys and both believe in God! Pretty sure they were close to genius IQ

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Comparative psychology studies are interesting insights to the human mind. Yes, elephants mourn their dead. Obviously they don't bury them with flowers much less embalm them or put them on a funeral pyre.

Emotions are our base selves, our most animalistic selves. It's rising above our emotions and using reason that makes human beings so different than the other animals. Dogs and cats may hate some people and like others without an obvious reason. They can hate other animals too, again with no obvious reason.

When people are experiencing strong emotions or letting their emotions rule their head, they are being illogical, unreasonable. Tell a girlfriend her new boyfriend is bad for her and she's more likely to dump you than her new love. Tell some men Trump is a lying POS draft-dodging coward and they'll turn various shades of red and purple then let loose with a string of ad hominems that would make a sailor blush. At that point, they are just animals, not logical, reasonable human beings.

I would further state that a belief in deity/deities, an immortal soul, and some sort of afterlife are based less on reason and more on emotion. Who wants this to be all that there is? Who wants to be separated from their loved ones by the grave? These thoughts can be unbearable to most human beings. Therefore <poof!> there is something of us that lives on! A Heaven, a Valhalla, a reincarnation, the villages of the deceased people represented by the campfires in the night sky. Any being emotional enough to become attached to another being is likely to have invented some way that they can be forever together, even after the death of the meat space body. Did you know that elephants and crows, among others, place twigs and leaves and even flowers on their fallen companions? Who can say whether they have a cosmology among their people that rivals that of us human's?

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

It is possible for a stupid person to fake their way through college. But I know very few genuinely stupid people who have masters degrees.

But I am responding to what you wrote. You literally wrote that no one who believes in God can have critical thinking skills. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Joe Biden are practicing Christians. Do they lack critical thinking skills?

One of my brothers-in-law has a masters in history. He is also an evangelical Trump supporter. Like you I've never had the desire to ask him if he's a young-earther or not but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that about him. I do know that neither he nor his wife, Mr. Owl's sister who has a BA in communications, accept evolution as truth. They have one boy who is 13 now; he has attended only carefully-selected Xtian schools so that he won't be exposed to such false beliefs.

They're definitely not stupid in the least. But they are willfully blind.

 

[Cypress]

The Bible doesn't say whale! It says great fish!

So then the paleontologist or biologist can think their way right into hell according to the scripture I shared! Just leave People live their lives how they see fit! By the way two of my best friends are the smartest Men when it came to learning in school neither had common sense! Still great guys and both believe in God! Pretty sure they were close to genius IQ

The Old Testament was written by men in a language that humans five thousand years ago could understand.

To people of the iron age, a whale was a great fish. We did not even have the Linnaeus classification of animals into mammals, fish, reptiles until the 17th century.

Because the bible was written by men in an archaic language that people of the iron age could understand, it was never going to use modern mammalian names and classifications, nor is it going to speak about the particle physics and quantum dynamics which modern science understands were involved in the creation of the universe.

 

[Cypress]

One of my brothers-in-law has a masters in history. He is also an evangelical Trump supporter. Like you I've never had the desire to ask him if he's a young-earther or not but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that about him. I do know that neither he nor his wife, Mr. Owl's sister who has a BA in communications, accept evolution as truth. They have one boy who is 13 now; he has attended only carefully-selected Xtian schools so that he won't be exposed to such false beliefs.

They're definitely not stupid in the least. But they are willfully blind.

Yes, indeed self delusion can occur even in the smartest people.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

I would be reticent to ask colleagues and peers a question like that.

My impression is that many Christian scientists would view the bible as being allegory and metaphor, rather than literal written history.

Ergo the results of the study are not contradicted. The scientific mind can separate fact from fiction. Faith, in itself, it not a matter of the physical. Believing Adam and Eve popped into existence white, blond and blue-eyed speaking English with a copy of the Bible in hand would be ludicrous to propose. Believing there is a grand power behind creation is about faith, not dogma. Not "religiosity".

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Yes, indeed self delusion can occur even in the smartest people.

Agreed. People go insane regardless of their beliefs. They can be nutjob atheists or nutjob crusaders.