From: sdoe@nmsu.edu (Stephen Doe)
Subject: Re: iq<->religion: connection?
Organization: New Mexico State University
Distribution: world,public
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 07:44:45 GMT

In article <BzMCF5.12C.1@cs.cmu.edu> rhuss+@EDRC.CMU.EDU (Robert Huss) writes:
>In article <1992Dec19.224717.1993@prime.mdata.fi>, iikkap@mits.mdata.fi (Iikka Paavolainen) writes:
>|> Am I seeing wrongly, or is there a connection between one's IQ and one's
>|> religiousness? Of all people I know, I know only about 8 exceptionally smart
>|> people (IQ>125), and all of them happen to be atheists. On the contrary, the 
>|> dumbest people I've seen (eg. unable to use a remote control) are the most
>|> religious. Observing other atheists that I don't know (from this group for
>|> example) leads me to make a conclusion that on the average, atheists have a
>|> much better sense of logic (and thus usually have a higher IQ) and think much
>|> more clearly than religious people. From my own experiences, I can say that
>|> freeing oneself from the grasp of religion requires a certain level of logical
>|> thinking. Coincidentally, all these 8 people are mathematically gifted.
>|> When I speak of atheism here, I mean it to be a lack of belief in any god or
>|> superstition.
>|> Opinions?
>|> 
>|> BTW, if this offended you, go to a church instead of coming to alt.atheism.
>|> --
>|>  __/|_  ,  ,--------------------------------------------------------------,
>|> /o    \/:--| Iikka Paavolainen / iikkap@mits.mdata.fi, in Espoo, Finland  |
>|> \__~__/\:--| "I won't have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent."    |
>|>    `    `  `--------------------------------------------------------------'
>
>
>	It is safe to assume that the more intelligent people will have
>thought about their beliefs more, and will probably reject many fundementalist
>concepts.  Of my more intelligent friends, I would say they are certainly
>more tolerant of other beliefs, and more likely to be liberally religious,
>if not atheist.  Clear thinking is great, and we all like to be clear thinking
>and have clear thinking friends, but clear thinking doesn't mean you will
>become an athiest.  I have intelligent friends who have questioned the faith
>that they were brought up in, but have still come to terms with some form
>of religion, and are definitely not atheists.  I would say that it is highly
>unlikely that you will become an atheist if you were raised in a certain
>religion, and are not very intelligent.  Without intelligence it is difficult
>to change any views that you were socialized towards.
>	I think it is very dangerous to start believing that any group
>you belong to is inherently supperior.  This has been believed time and
>time again, and has been wrong time and time again.  It is likely that we
>atheists tend to have friends who are atheists.  Therefore, the people
>we know are both intelligent and atheist.  This is not a very good
>reference for statistics.
>	IMHO, intelligence will lead you to clear thinking, which may lead
>you to atheism, but I think clear thinking will also lead you to tolerance.
>Discussions like this are just breeding grounds for missunderstanding and
>anger.  Especially comments like your last sentence.
>
>Bob Huss.

Well, according to Iikka, the mere fact that we have this viewpoint
means that we don't think straight like him. . .

SD
Newsgroups: alt.atheism