Are Atheists Smarter Than Religous People?
By Dave Hitt on Jun 19, 2008 in Atheism, Religion
According to this article by Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, the smarter a person is, the less likely they are to believe in a god
Lynn makes quite a few assumptions in his paper, which compares belief among academics to the general population. The idea that academics are smarter than the general population isn’t necessarily valid - not only are some academics completely incompetent, some who are brilliant in their field are complete dunces outside a classroom. A proper study would include a large sample size and carefully adjust for counfounders like as age, income level, and religious upbringing.
Then we have to consider if IQ is a valid way to measure intelligence. I like the theory that there are a lot of different kinds of intelligence. There are the obvious ones, like Math IQ and Language IQ, but there is also Music IQ, Social IQ, Physical IQ, and so on. I think there is even a Freedom IQ, which is marked by a disdain for authority and a lack of the all too common human tendency to bend at the knee.
But with all that in mind, I think the premise is sound, based on my own experience: I have never met a stupid atheist. They may have other undesirable personality traits, but stupid? Never.
It takes something special to become an Atheist in the US. Although we’re all born atheists, from the first moments we become aware of the world our culture bombards us with god stuff. God is in our music, our government, our art, on our money and in our pledge. You can’t even sneeze in public without someone automaticaly mentioning god. Theism infests our culture at every level.
It takes a certain kind of intelligence, and lots of it, to really look skeptically at what most of the country takes for granted. And concluding that the Christian god is no more real than the Greek or Roman or Viking gods takes more than just intelligence - it takes guts to deal with the inevitable fallout. Many people who need a sky-daddy to be good can’t even conceive of someone being moral without the threat of eternal torture. The result is Atheists are despised and distrusted by the ignorant, and there are a lot of ignorant sucking up oxygen. Admitting your atheism can cost you friends, it can cost a promotion (or even your job) and it often costs you your family. In the past twenty years I’ve spoken with my father, in total, for about 45 minutes. I left his cult when I was a young man, and so he is forbidden to speak with me. His god, Jehovah, is a nasty prick.
I’m not saying all religious people are stupid - I know some truly brilliant theists. But the number of mouth breathing atheists is approximately none and a substantial percentage of the very religious are blithering idiots, so when you average out the numbers atheists are going to be on the top of the heap.
Not saying the conclusion isn’t without at least a little merit…but I have to contest your statement that there are no stupid atheists. I have met many, many, people who thought religion was dumb and silly, and had neither an understanding of religion or atheism, nor much understanding of the world in general. I’ve met people the exact opposite as well, but neither side seemed to dominate in my experience.
Merry | Jun 19, 2008 | Reply
To be fair, all he said was he hadn’t met a stupid atheist. Nobody said they don’t exist. I’ve probably met a lot of them, although I doubt if I could name three because mostly I didn’t know were atheists: in Europe there’s much less religion and people don’t usually wear it on their sleeves. It doesn’t take much, if any, brainpower to be an atheist here. It’s just what happens. I think if there was much less religion still, though, the effect would return, because you’d have to be a bit special to think there was a god when nobody else did.
I can’t help but think this conclusion is a tautology, though: all other things being equal, someone who believes in nonsense is surely by definition not as smart as someone who doesn’t?
Andrew | Jun 20, 2008 | Reply
Mary, I was talking specifically about atheists, not people in general who don’t like religion. Most atheists know more about religion than believers because they’ve studied it and really thought about the question, while the majority of believers just accept belief without any real critical thought.
And yes, there probably are some stupid atheists out there, but I have yet to meet one.
Perfect.
Hittman | Jun 21, 2008 | Reply
Hey, what about the “Millionaire Next Door” book? I can’t remember the exact quote, and my copy is in another country, but it went something like… “Common traits of a self-made millionaire: Having a modest house, driving a used F-150 pickup, an average state university degree, regular attendance in a moderate church…”
Hey, if it means more bucks, I could return to the fold… ;)
Haywood | Jun 30, 2008 | Reply
You can do all those things with or without believing in a sky daddy.
Check out Dave Ramsey’s stuff for details. Great stuff. He’s a religious guy, and sometimes his religious side gets a bit annoying, but not often, and it’s worth putting up with for the rest of the information he supplies. It’s a fairly simple plan to get out of debt, and stay out of debt, and *then* you can trade in the rusty pickup for something nice, and pay for it with cash. And it works with or without religion.
He’s got a podcast of his radio show that’s worth a listen.
Dave Hitt | Jul 1, 2008 | Reply
I would have thought that, especially in America, most people who don’t go to church skip it because they can’t be bothered rather than because they don’t believe. That being the case, and given that successful people are likely to be the ones who stick at things rather than skipping over the boring parts, if millionaires are mostly church-goers, I’d posit that as the likely reason. (That said, seems to me that the easiest way to get rich in America is to set yourself up as an evangelical.)
It does seem downright strange though, that most self-made millionaires would regularly go to a building to hear about how it is impossible for rich men to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and how the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and so forth. (Although that’s no worse than any of the other rampant hypocrisy almost all religions require.)
Andrew | Jul 2, 2008 | Reply