Does what you believe indicate how intelligent you are?

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   veritorogueposted 12 years ago

   Does what you believe indicate how intelligent you are?
   
   Are atheists logical and reasoned and religious people imbeciles? Are conservatives insipid dolts and liberals enlightened pragmatists? Is the barista with a masters degree in medieval literature more intelligent that the ASE certified auto mechanic? Many hubbers flaunt their college degrees and hub scores while making arguments based on unsound premises, shaky logic, and blind adherence to rigid ideologies. How do you or I know if we are educated idiots or Socratic inquisitors seeking truth and knowing when we have found it?
   
   

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   Man from Modestoposted 12 years ago

   Atheists say they are smarter and that education helps them to reject God. Is this true? Or, have students been programmed by hidden groups with an agenda? read more

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   TheLifeExperimentposted 12 years ago

   It depends. There are extreme religious people who reject all kinds of science in lieu of faith, so technically they could be considered less intelligent. There was a study that showed liberals were generally more intelligent than their more religious conservative counterparts. I personally do believe that religious people can be less intelligent in certain areas of study.

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      veritorogueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Blind adherence to dogma does indicate either low intelligence or the individual's unwillingness to comtemplate alternatives to their ingrained beliefs. Einstein was not religious nor an atheist, where does that leave us?

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      Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting. The more educated I have become, the more humble and wise I have become. My education gave me the ability to question my indoctrination in evolution with what I know of science and re-evaluate my opposition to a Biblical worldview.

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      Man from Modestoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The idea that religious people reject science is a lie propagated by repetition. Over and over again, newspapers, magazines, and other socialization tools (aka "media") tell you "Christians reject evolution and science." This is a lie.

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      TheLifeExperimentposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Man from modesto: typically, christians do reject evolution- evolution, like creationism, is a theory about how we got here. Christians believe creationism, and therefore reject evolution, which is based on science, not faith or the bible.

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      Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      As one educated in science, I can say that it takes a lot more faith to believe the weak science of evolution than the evidence for creation.

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   ARSHAD MAJIDposted 12 years ago

   The only scientific way to measure human intelligence today, is the IQ test. So if we believe that the atheist are more intelligent, then the nations where atheism or evolution theory is very popular, should have got the highest IQ levels. But on the other hand we see that the top five countries in the world, in terms of highest average IQ level, are namely; Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. Now they don't believe in God, but believe 'Chinese Mythology-- Dragons'. This would either require the atheist to redefine the terms 'atheism' and 'evolution-ism' OR, strictly based on Science and facts; we all should believe in Chinese Mythology.

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      veritorogueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Awesome take on this question. I disagree with your point about the IQ test. As an educator I have found that there are many areas of intelligence that are not an assessed by an IQ test.

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      Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree about the IQ test, Veritorogue. The GRE is another standardized test that in my opinion is not all that useful.

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   AM Hansonposted 12 years ago

   I don't think that a person's religious or political affiliations indicate their level of intelligence.  I think that, if you were going to look at belief/intelligence correlations, you should instead look at how they approach their faith/politics.  I know extremely intelligent people who are very religious, simply because it fills a niche in their life.  Also, there are many who are of a certain religion/political party, but they do not hold to all of that groups ideas.  Instead they follow their own path of belief.  This in itself could be a sign of intelligence or stupidity, since there are many weird splinter groups of mainstream religion/politics.
   The main problem with suggesting that all people within the umbrella terms of "athiests" or "religious people" are of the same mindset is that it requires all of those people to actually be of the same mindset.  However, many people who consider themselves to be "religious" do not strictly adhere to rigid ideologies.  And I personally know a few people who are athiests simply because they never were exposed to religion, see religion as a "stupid fairy tale," or simply don't want to have to think about God at all.

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