Atheists 'have Higher Iqs

[Mekong]

I am not one for blindly following results of research but this article sums up my beliefs (or lack of)

 

 

Atheists tend to be more intelligent than religious people, according to a US study.

 

Researchers found that those with high IQs had greater self-control and were able to do more for themselves - so did not need the benefits that religion provides.

 

 

 

The conclusions were the result of a review of 63 scientific studies about religion and intelligence dating between 1928 and last year.

 

 

In 53 of these there was a ‘reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity’.

 

 

In just 10 was that relationship positive.

 

 

 

Even among children, the more intelligent a child was the more probable it was that they would shun the church.

In old age the same trend persisted as well, the research showed.

The University of Rochester psychologists behind the study defined religion as involvement in some or all parts of a belief.

They defined intelligence as the ‘ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience’.

 

In their conclusions, they said: ‘Most extant explanations (of a negative relation) share one central theme - the premise that religious beliefs are irrational, not anchored in science, not testable and, therefore, unappealing to intelligent people who ‘know better’.

 

‘Intelligent people typically spend more time in school - a form of self-regulation that may yield long-term benefits.

‘More intelligent people getting higher level jobs and better employment and higher salary may lead to higher self-esteem, and encourage personal control beliefs.’

 

Study co-author Jordan Silberman, a graduate student of neuroeconomics at the University of Rochester, said: ‘Intelligence may lead to greater self-control ability, self-esteem, perceived control over life events, and supportive relationships, obviating some of the benefits that religion sometimes provides.’

 

 

 

Research from the UK last week showed another drawback to being religious, or at least Christian - you lose out in the race for top jobs.

Official figures show nearly one in four people who have no religious belief now live in homes headed by someone with a senior executive job or a place in one of the professions.

 

But well under a fifth of Christians are employed in the best-paid and most influential jobs or are married to someone who is, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The last census, carried out in March 2011, showed a fall in the number of people that call themselves Christian in the UK.

 

Christian numbers in England and Wales, including children, fell by 4.1 million in a decade to 33.2 million.

 

However there was a 45 per cent rise over the same 10 years in numbers who say they have no religion, to 14.1 million.

 

 

 

http://www.dailymail...scientific.html

[Flashermac]

The polls always show that most people in the west still believe in something, just not the traditional "revealed" religions. Religion is becoming less important in most people's lives, not completely disappearing.

 

World wide it is something else!

 

[Mekong]

I was brought up as a devout catholic, at Grammar School my teachers were referred to as "Brother" yes they were the brown robe wearing religious nuts. Having worked a lot in the Middle East I have met a few Mohammed.s Abdul's and osoma's but not many locals were called Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

 

I am not a scientologist or any other freak but I do believe Marx was correct when he said "Religion is the Opiate of the Masses" it is a way to control free thinking individuals, and we westerners ridicule the Thai educational system. My father has always been a devout catholic and I don't hold it against him, what I did object to was his trying to force his beliefs onto me, my mother is the complete opposite only attends church for weddings and funerals and thinks organised religion is a farce, you can guess who I took after.

 

I am of the Darwin school of evolution and survival of the fittest, maybe one of the reasons I disagree with many Americans. We are each entitled to our own beliefs and as long as someone is not trying to force their misguided ideas down my throat I can live and let live. I am proud of my non belief, you would catch me more likely reading the works of Issac Newton or Lewis Carroll than look at a bible. Newtons classic line about gravity "The Apple Fell" was a classic put down to Adam and Eve.

 

 

[Flashermac]

Aha, another one raised Catholic. The Catholic Church throws so many exotic beliefs at its members - the majority of which are not even based on the bible - that it is losing members steadily. Protestants who lose their faith tend to become agnostics. Ex-Catholics seem go the whole way and become atheists.

 

My wife once told me her friends asked her if we didn't have religious problems. She asked why? She said said I never went to church and she never went to a temple.

[Mekong]

As much as I turned my back on Catholicism without it I would not be here. My real birth mother, unknown to me, put me up for adoption and I spent the first 2 years of my life in a convent being raised by nuns. It was my fathers strong connection with the local Catholic Church that led to me being adopted.

 

I am probably more agnostic than atheist, I don't deny that their may be a higher being but it's just not for me but it has served my father well, if his belief gives him strength then who am I to deny it from him. He prays for me a lot haha.

 

When I started school, of course a catholic one closely related to the church, I have found out in recent years that about 60% of my class mates were also adopted, I never knew at the time but keeping in touch and reunions and the tales come out. I think that if I had been conceived 10 years later I would have been aborted,

 

It's a double edged sword for me, as an educated engineer who looks at facts scientifically religion has no place in my life, but on the other side of the coin it was the Catholic Church that gave me a life hence the reason I tend to define myself as agnostic.

[Coss]

I was kicked out of Sunday School when I was 5 for questioning the existence of God.

 

Got to go to SUnday matinee movies after that - good deal...

[Mekong]

Haha

 

Reminds me of my answer to "What is Reincarnation" and I replied "Condensed Milk" it did not go down to well my RE teacher had a nervous breakdown.

[ALHOLK]

I was kicked out of Sunday School when I was 5 for questioning the existence of God.

 

Got to go to SUnday matinee movies after that - good deal...

 

I wish Swedish Sunday shcool teachers had been that intolerant. I had to attend until I was about 12. On the positive side and later confirmation gave me all the logiical reasonss and facts to become a convinced atheist. In the end I suppose I should be grateful for having my brain activated in the area of logical thinking.

 

ALHOLK

 

P.S Sunday matinee movies were always in the afternoon so I could see them as well.

[think_too_mut]

One thing that makes me doubt the results is Israel. Religious to the bone.

Still, that small population makes more exports than Saudi Arabia (barred oil) while they have less people than Riyadh. High science, microcode, things that Putin used to rub the nose of Michael Dell (DELL computers) when he asked how to help Russia ("Invalides need help, not us").

 

Born and raised in a communist country where God was forbidden, I am , on the scale 1-10, somewhere at 3. Aware and doing occasionally for personal reasons. My scale would be:

 

0 - ateist

.

.

.

10 - actively practicing and recruiting others

 

Short, I think your post is irrelevant. Religious people do come into positions to disrupt but rarely to improve the World.

 

[pasathai1]

Religion is just politics in disguise