Extreme Religious Fundamentalists Are The Least Intelligent Humans

I thank you for your very well researched and resourced reply: My reply will not be so well researched this time due to constraints of time. Though I agree on several points, especially to the fact that I have not covered all the aspects of Intelligence. As I have put this into the category of Science and not philosophy. There needs to be a consideration of how the brain functions during the process of rationalization. Philosophically, all thoughts and considerations can be considered rational, even empirically rational ones. This is one of the great aspects of scientific philosophy, in thinking outside the box, sometimes irrationally can produce rational considerations and aspects that produce results, where prior to this, they were not considered at all. Advancements in science don't always come from rational thought. The problem with considering age old or ancient superstitions like the established religions, they have been so thoroughly studied and investigated, from all aspects and now even neurologically that any chance of making new discoveries about human nature and especially science from their Irrationality have been long surpassed. The Irrationality has become nothing more than a distraction from reality and a hindrance to clarity of thought. It is not so much that spiritual or even religious considerations will affect critical thinking in the normal person. It's solely in the approach used by Religious bodies to deliberately quash or deter critical thinking. This is the crux of the matter, not just thinking of religious considerations. Fundamentalists are people so deeply indoctrinated in these practices of quashing critical thinking and so adapt at not thinking critically, that they lose the connections within the brain to perform such thinking. The brain will strengthen often used neural paths and weaken the connections in rarely used paths. If a person has been deterred from critical thinking and has not used the critical thinking pathways in the brain for many years, because of the deterrence and sense of "Lack Of Need" that most religions engender. The long time Fundy will develop an inability to perform such critical thinking adequately. Thus they would exhibit an extremely low Rational Intelligence, because Rationality relies on Critical thinking skills. There are other aspects of developing a highly Faith orientated mindset that I will leave for now. Though as highlighted, long time Fundamentalists will have damaged neurological capacity for Critical thinking and thus a lower level of Intelligence because of this. Mostly due to Organizational constraints on critical thinking to deter (indoctrinate) member from discovering fallacies in the concepts that form the basis of the organization's teachings and doctrines. All Christian churches use such practices as Elder guidance of newcomers, in order to shield them from alternative and conflicting concepts or thought. Critical thinking is so often the enemy of established Religion, thus the deterrence. Thus initiating the deterioration of the critical thinking paths within the brains of the unsuspecting victims. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com... It's the processes utilized, not the philosophies that is the Issue here! http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com... http://www.huffingtonpost.com... I want you to take careful note of the definition of Indoctrination in the following Critical Thinking Glossary: http://www.criticalthinking.org... You will see why it limits critical inquiry and the practice starts the process of weakening the structures (neuron links) in the brain that are mostly incorporated in the function of Critical Inquiry, culminating in the fully fledged Fundamentalist being incapable of such Critical Inquiry. Which is evident in many comments made by such Fundamentalists. A great example was Ayatollah Khomeini, who apparently had a very high IQ, though made idiotic, extremely Unintelligent decisions that turned much of the world against his Islam and made Iran appear as a Nation of Brainless People, which it certainly is not. Such are the dangers of having very Unintelligent (overly indoctrinated) fundamentalists in Government. They are incapable of healthy Critical Thinking.