Children Are Born in Ignorance -- Believers in atheist Dogma Remain So, Unto Death

In order to avoid any confusions or straw-man arguments, the definition of an Atheist is someone that does not believe in a god or gods. Ex. You claim that you have a magical tiger god in your garage, but you won’t show me. A theist would say “I believe you.”An agnostic would say “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I won’t take a hard stance.”I (the Atheist) would say “Without any evidence, I don’t believe you.”A Gnostic Atheist would say “Not only do I not believe you, but I KNOW there isn’t a tiger in there.”We are not discussing Gnostic Atheism because you did not specify it as such, so do not generalize Atheism as Gnostic Atheism.Firstly, I would like to note that Atheists “[not knowing] any facts about God” is simply not true. I myself was brought up in a Roman-Catholic household, and we used to go to church every Sunday. I was baptized, had to learn about god and the bible, and did my confirmation. During the time when I was preparing for my confirmation I was doubting the existence of a god, and after it I officially called myself an Atheist.If you’re not satisfied with the personal anecdote, according to the Pew Research Center, “78% of religious nones say they were raised in highly religious families”. “Almost half...went away from religion simply due to a lack of a belief.” (1) (For more specific reasons why, see 1a.)(Religious nones = Atheists, Agnostics, No Affiliation)If you think that educating children on religion will lead them to god, then why is it that a majority of those that don’t believe in god ARE educated on religion (at least to some degree)? Presumably a highly religious household would take it upon themselves to “enlighten” their children on god, no?Of course, you may claim that they weren’t taught the “right” ideology, but then what would that be? You would need to specify what are the “correct teachings” and what aren’t.Secondly, why is it that you correlate a lack of belief in a god with ignorance?If that were true, we would probably see a high percent of uneducated Atheists running around, but this is not the case. About 38% of religious nones have a high school degree or less, with is about in line with other beliefs. Those with unusually high levels of low education are Catholic (46%), Evangelical Protestant (43%), Historically Black Protestant (52%) and Jehovah’s Witness (63%) (2).(You can be an Atheist and be a genius/ignorant, you can be a Hindu and be a genius/ignorant, you can be a Muslim and be a genius/ignorant. It is not a matter of your belief, it is how you came to those conclusions, and what you know beyond religion.)In addition, there have been studies done that demonstrate Atheist tend to have higher IQs. While I don’t believe IQs are an accurate way of measuring intelligence, the explanation of this phenomenon makes a big statement on religious communities and countries. According to Nigel Barber, “Highly religious countries (Barber, 2012): Are poorer. They are less urbanized. Have lower levels of education. They have less exposure to electronic media that increase intelligence (Barber, 2006). Experience a heavier load of infectious diseases that impair brain function. Suffer more from low birth weights. Have worse child nutrition. Do a poor job of controlling environmental pollutants such as lead that reduce IQ.” (3)From my interpretation, this isn’t about how intelligent non-religious people are (at least, not to an exceptional degree), but how uneducated religious people tend to be (and it also depends on what religion they belong to. Some religions are highly educated, like Hinduism (2), while some sects of Christianity are as educated as a third world country.)My final point is that Atheists, as a whole, are not ignorant or stupid. Some of us may be brash and stubborn, but our belief does not make us any less intelligent than the average person. On the flip side, how religious you are (or even how informed on religion you are) is not an accurate measure of intelligence. It matters more that you can understand the world around you and defend your beliefs, otherwise how can you call yourself intelligent?My personal opinion is that religion as a concept is not harmful, but the religions that have been created are. They typically propagate ignorance and enforce the idea that we should not explore other beliefs since they might contradict their own. They prey on people in poor and disadvantaged communities and manipulate them because they are less likely to question them. Luckily there are some religions (like Buddhism) that are more positive than negative, and I would encourage people to favor the mentality of "seek enlightenment and be accepting" over the “most popular religions are best” or “the one I was raised in is best”.I await your response.Sources:1. http://www.worldreligionnews.com...1a. http://www.pewresearch.org...2. http://www.pewforum.org...3. https://www.psychologytoday.com...