Posted on 03/07/2010 8:53:38 AM PST by mattstat
There are some new statistical papers floating around that conclude that the more intelligent among us tend to be atheists.
An equivalent, but more enjoyable, way of stating this is that dumber people tend to be theists. It must be fun for degree-holding atheist journalists to report these matters, since it flatters their degree-bred sense of superiority.
Which doesn’t follow. That “superiority”, I mean. It would if it were true that atheism is morally superior to theism. But morality is logically independent of intelligence (empirically, the evidence goes both ways; and since 1789, intellectuals have little to boast of, morally).
Point is, any study, or any reporting on such a study, that seeks to correlate intelligence and theism should remain mute on the subject of morality. But that’s not the case in the reporting and comments on our two articles (here and here)
The first study was authored by Satoshi Kanazawa, an “evolutionary psychologist.” Evolutionary psychologist spend a lot of telling us what we already knew (women hate philandering mates) or by telling us things that are false or misleading. Such as this statement by James Bailey, who said, “The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas [like atheism] makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward.”
Bailey also says that it’s the more intelligent that usher in novel ideas. This is unhelpful because, while it is true that every advance by definition requires a “novel idea”, every setback does, too. And since setbacks are more common than advances (is atheism a setback?), are intellectuals, on average, an evolutionary disadvantage? Maybe: see below.
Anyway, Kanazawa thinks atheism is a novel idea, and says that higher IQ people tend to support it. But Kanazawa’s study employs poor statistical methods. Here’s the problem...
(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...
Pretty much the only people who consider militant atheists to be “logical and intelligent” are mindless celebrities, spoiled young teens, developmentally delayed government paper pushers, lunatics locked in an ivory tower, and the militant atheists themselves. In their nonfunctional minds, you qualify as “intelligent” just for being an atheist...even if you happen to be an idiot.
How ironic, atheists criticize religious people of putting on an air of self-righteousness (i.e. religious people are constantly patting themselves on the back for doing good deeds).
Meanwhile, atheists sit around telling themselves they and only they have any intelligence based on their rejection of spirituality (i.e. they are constantly patting themselves on the back for denying God exists). Not only is their belief system based on faith (which they deny), but now they have their own form of self-righteousness. Priceless.
Self love is never having to say you suck!
That is a very correct observation, which begs the question, why do atheists deny their faith.
The believer must base his belief there is a creator on faith because proof of a creator does not exist.
The non-believer also must base his belief there is no creator on faith because proof there is no creator does not exist.
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