are atheists intelectually superior?

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   topgunjagerposted 13 years ago

   Is it a coincidence that an overwhelming majority of the smartest and most brilliant minds on the planet are atheists?

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      the pink umbrellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      are you kidding me? (ego much?)

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      kessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Ignorance will always cause division because it is division itself.
      
      Because of it men have divided themselves into languages, status and classes,nations, religion and race.
      
      So we see we have the intellectual division of the brights and the dunces...
      
      All these things are because of Love for the god of almighty dollar from whom all ignorance springs.
      
      But the "True  brights" are those who do not see themselvesas greater than any other, and this can be seen in their willingness to be the servant of all.
      
      And the "true dunces" are those who constantly trying to exalt themselves above all by their show of knowledge.
      
      And this they do so as to accumulate more of the wealth of this World..
      Which is the ultimate proof of their ignorance.

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      Beelzedadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I often think about Newton and the fact that he was a deeply religious man in that even though he refused to take holy orders and refused the sacrament when it was offered to him on his deathbed, he attempted to extract scientific information from the bible and eventually penned an entire manuscript on it promoting a divinely design universe with all the maths. He often lobbied and supported openly his views that a god did indeed 'kick start' the universe, so to speak, but he reasons that creation was gods only intervention and that the universe had been subject to the laws of physics and nature ever since.
      
      What's interesting though, is that his views about the physical laws of nature governing our existence became the ideas that helped to "kick start" the Age of Enlightenment and the end to the age of "Magical Thinking". 

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   knolyourselfposted 13 years ago

   Absolutely no co-incidence.

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   just_curiousposted 13 years ago

   

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4. 70

   Diane Insideposted 13 years ago

   They like to think they are, I know some very intelligent individuals who are geniuses if you go by the IQ scale, who are not atheists.

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      pylos26posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      But, they are "weak" geniuses, and scared of their shadows.

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   Mikeydoesposted 13 years ago

   Your mind is powerful. And it gravitates you to what you like.
   
   Anyone can be smart, or at least appear smart. Think about it, while people spend 1-3 hours every weekend going to church. And then countless hours thinking about God. Many atheists just block out the idea of death and religion in general and focus it on something else. You can spend this valuable time and brain space on other issues of interest.
   
   I have come to find out that there is no one really that smart, or smarter than me. They just have more experience in a certain field, nothing more, nothing less. I could have studied calculus and excelled in it, but I didn't put in the time, as to where many people did. I found no need to learn it, and apparently they did. I don't think that this makes them smarter at all.
   
   I always felt like I had an edge being one of the verfy few non-religious people, but what do I know. I'm going to die eventually and all this will mean nothing. So what does smart really get me?
   
   Be spiritual if you want, and if you don't want to focus your time on something else. That is all there is to it.

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      Castlepalomaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      There was an IQ tests among 6 groups here in Canada
      
      1st Politician, hard to believe but true
      2nd Nerds
      3th Atheists
      4th forgot who
      5th Christians
      6th Twins

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         wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Do twins depend on each other to take up the slack and support each other and thus don't find a need to learn as much?
         
         Politicians are not stupid; they are masters of doing nothing for the people that put them into office while maintaining that office.  They know how to control people.

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         the pink umbrellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         why is it hard to believe polititians are that smart? you have to be very intelligent to make people believe you.

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         Rafiniposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         (You forgot the people who 'teach' the politicians)

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            Castlepalomaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            The true leaders in history are the people, the greatest liar usually gets elected and to remember all the lies takes hard work. The different is, if the politician deep down in themselves has a good heart

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         Penteposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         IQ tests are 50% verbal, 25% math, and 25% visual.
         Doesn't surprise me that politicians might score the highest. Many nerds tend to have a spatial-logical intelligence that is so high it isn't even accurately measured by most IQ tests. We also have a tendency to accept I-want-to-be-a-nerds who just want to be part of our crowd but just don't have a talent for science or math. They just learn the vocabulary with no real understanding.
         Politicians are masters of spin and twisting words. I am sometimes amazed at their ability to twist things around. Most of them went through law school which teaches you how to continue an argument even when you know the facts are completely against you. Elections act as a method of pruning out the weakest.

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   wildernessposted 13 years ago

   Not necessarily true.  It would be hard to believe that the pope is a stupid or even average man (unless he is merely a puppet with someone else pulling the strings).
   
   The thing is that the Steven Hawkins of the religious world make no discoveries and announce no new concepts they have come up with.  Instead their intellect is turned to maintaining and increasing their power base and income - high dollar evangelists come to mind.  They work towards people control instead of understanding and teaching nature and the details of that work must be kept reasonably secret or is worthless to them.
   
   And yes, there are obvious exceptions.

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      Castlepalomaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      As a group, it thinks it fair to say that Atheists are above average intelectect and most predominate in science field
      
      Intelligent is a different deal, I consider you intelligent if you are above average in each area of relationships, physical health, intellect, spiritual and finance balance

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         wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Interesting definitions.  Personally, I would not differentiate a great deal between the two.
         
         Neither would I ever put health as a factor in intelligence, nor spiritual balance.  Financial balance often comes with it as a result, but the very very intelligent people often have a very hard time with relationships, I think.

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            Castlepalomaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            One example of how one out of the five areas can unbalance your life.
            
            Take financial: about 1/3 of the world is homeless; it's been written 75% of the homeless people in Canada are mentally ill. That will unbalances your spirit, your relationship and physical well being, it’s likely will drop all below average too.
            
            On other hand too much money has the least to do with your happiness. I think balance is the key to intelligent

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               superwagsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               A third of the world is homeless! What the hell are you talking about?!
               
               The UN reckons around 100 million people are homeless globally and most are not homeless because of of bad "life spirit" but bacause of life threatening problems like famine and war. So around 1.3% of the worlds population is homeless and the vast majority of these are not in the western world.
               
               I've got to say, your talk of unbalanced spirits and very shoddy use of stats makes me think that you may be involved in this new aged pseudoscience crap. Unless you're making money out of it, drop it quick!

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                  Castlepalomaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  My studies come from traveling all continents and from building an eco village on my land in a third world country.
                  In Canadian anyways, there are There are more homeless people than public servants in Canada.
                  
                  I do not belong to any group because it limits my thinking and yes, I do make money and growth from studding from all groups of people.

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   knolyourselfposted 13 years ago

   Most big-time politicians, at least in America are lawyers. There primary job is distribute socialist tax payer monies. How they allot that money would seem to me to determine how smart they are, as the long term affects of said allotment.

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8. 74

   earnestshubposted 13 years ago

   I'm sure there are many smart "believers." as well as those who don't believe in an invisible entity running the show.
   Brain washing and peer pressure can distort thinking and make a person appear as dumb as mud even when they are otherwise of normal intelligence.

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9. 67

   superwagsposted 13 years ago

   I think that people are more likely to be atheists if they've taken more than one or two minutes out to actually think about it. Whether this then makes them intelligent or not is debatable.
   
   I mean, scientifically speaking, yes, there is data looking at religious beliefs among university employees which find a remarkably low rate of religious belief.
   
   Can I also add a proviso here and say that this is within US unis. I think there is a danger among posts like these that assume the rest of the western world acts like the US in terms of its collective backwards religious point of view. This isn't generally a problem in Europe unless the person in question lives in a very small village.

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    donotfearposted 13 years ago

    Does this pertain to just the atheists on Hubpages or the whole world?
    
    In general, though, I would have to ask the question again.
    
    ....are atheists intelectually superior?   
    (Does a chicken have lips)?
    
    ....are atheists intelectually superior?
    (They think so).

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       just_curiousposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Too true.

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11. 59

    Jeramiposted 13 years ago

    I do agree that the smartest atheist are smarter than the dumbest Theist.
    
      BUT what does it prove to say that the smartest Theist is smarter than the dumbest Atheist???
    
       So unless someone does a poll taking IQ tests of everyone on earth   we will never know the answer of this mind numbing question

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    paarsurreyposted 13 years ago

    are atheists intelectually superior?
    
    
    Not necessarilty.

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    Seeker7posted 13 years ago

    In a nut shell - no! Some of them just sound like it but it's their ego's talking.

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    TheOneWhoKnowsposted 13 years ago

    The fact is that atheists are always looking for proof, that's the reason why they are ''dedicated'' to learn more. But as far as I know, the only good intellectual atheist was Friedrich Nietzsche.

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    christiansisterposted 13 years ago

    I think that intellect can only be measured to the extent at which the testers are looking.
    
    Einstein was said to be retarded and would never amount to much by his primary education structure.
    
    Intelligence is not measurable. Because too many factors come into play when the test is administered. Have you ever taken a test and missed things that you know you know?
    
    It is all in what the testers say constitute intelligence.

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       christiansisterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Also I googled it to be sure I was not misleading and there is much about his young life but this sentence seems to point to this thread.
       
       Though Einstein studied physics diligently during the summer of 1895 in preparation from the Zurich Polytechnic, he failed the necessary exams for admission. At the suggestion of the principal of the Polytechnic, he spent the next year in a Swiss secondary school in Aarau preparing to retake the examination.

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       Beelzedadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       That is a lie. He merely had a mild case of Asperges Syndrome. He was a brilliant man with a brilliant mind.
       
       

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          christiansisterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          That is my point. He was brilliant! But, according to the people who constituted the intelligent beings at the time had no way to measure his intellect because he already was way above him.
          
          And he is not hardly the only example.

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    Robert Hagedornposted 13 years ago

    Nope.  They're definitely not.  I found out the hard way.  You can trust me on this one.  Neither believers nor nonbelievers can criticize the following.  Do a search:  The First Scandal.

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    paarsurreyposted 13 years ago

    Are atheists intelectually superior?
    
    Human intelligence is not based on one's religion or no-religion; so it is not essential that atheists should be superior to others; sometimes they would less than a mediocre or even worse.

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    dingdondingdonposted 13 years ago

    Interestingly, I read a fascinating study a while back. It was testing the basic literacy and numeracy levels of a group of volunteers who were asked if they identified as religious and if so, what religion they were.
    
    Lowest ranked were those who identified as devout Catholics, followed by those who identified as less devout but still Catholic. Then came the Protestants.
    
    Highest ranked were Atheists and those who identified as casual Buddhists.

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    BunuBobuposted 13 years ago

    I am an Atheist but I don't believe it has anything to do with intelligence, but rather disillusionment.

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       paarsurreyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       You are perfectly alright; thanks for being so frank; it is appreciable.

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