Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
Getbig Misc Discussion Boards => Religious Debates & Threads => Topic started by: columbusdude82 on June 12, 2008, 01:21:15 PM
-
Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 2:57PM BST 12/06/2008
People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.
Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.
A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.
But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.
Article continues
advertisement
Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.
A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.
Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.
He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."
He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.
But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.
"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.
Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".
Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."
Have your say: Is faith linked to intelligence?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html)
-
My IQ is lower than that of an Alsatian and I'm an atheist.
ProteinFart's IQ is comparable to that of a dead slug, he too is an atheist.
Have these Chaps got their facts right?
*Our combined IQ's are still similar in value to the combined population of Pakistan and the Middle East
-
My IQ is lower than that of an Alsatian and I'm an atheist.
ProteinFart's IQ is comparable to that of a dead slug, he too is an atheist.
Have these Chaps got their facts right?
*Our combined IQ's are still similar in value to the combined population of Pakistan and the Middle East
-
A quote with no response?
Are you too a member of the atheist's sub-50 IQ club? ;D
-
A quote with no response?
Are you too a member of the atheist's sub-50 IQ club? ;D
Debussey screwed up.
The response was: Your IQ = still very high compared to Debusseys IQ of 53 >:(
-
My IQ is lower than that of an Alsatian and I'm an atheist.
my german Shepard took offence to that
-
my german Shepard took offence to that
pics! :D
;D
-
As if there would be any legitimate indicator of a person's intelligence ::)
IQ doesn't tell you shit about a person's wisdom.
-
As if there would be any legitimate indicator of a person's intelligence ::)
IQ doesn't tell you shit about a person's wisdom.
Naja. Du musst selber zugeben, dass die Mehrheit deiner Mitglaeubigen nicht gerade intelligent ist....die ganzen Fundamentalisten, wie Du schon weisst, sind gute Beispiele dafuer, von denen es sehr viele hier gibt.
-
People should in my opinion believe what they want, and don't bother other people with their believes.
Take the Aussie aboriginals for example. They have their believe, but do not bother others with that. They used to be at peace with themselves and their environment, once.
-
Naja. Du musst selber zugeben, dass die Mehrheit deiner Mitglaeubigen nicht gerade intelligent ist....die ganzen Fundamentalisten, wie Du schon weisst, sind gute Beispiele dafuer, von denen es sehr viele hier gibt.
I agree that a lot of people who say they believe in something are in fact just invested in a false ideology, which one could call stupidity. However, thinking that one can despise all spirituality by pointing out this obvious mistake is just as stupid.
-
I agree that a lot of people who say they believe in something are in fact just invested in a false ideology, which one could call stupidity. However, thinking that one can despise all spirituality by pointing out this obvious mistake is just as stupid.
Hast Du dein Deutsch vergessen, Wiener?
-
Hast Du dein Deutsch vergessen, Wiener?
After quite a few requests to stop posting in German, I decided to do so. Apart from that, posting in German would divert from my main reason of posting at all.
-
After quite a few requests to stop posting in German, I decided to do so. Apart from that, posting in German would divert from my main reason of posting at all.
did u just let him call u a weiner?
-
did u just let him call u a weiner?
No harm done, it just means Viennese ;D
-
did u just call me SPERMER? If so, I like it bebe.
Fixed.
-
After quite a few requests to stop posting in German, I decided to do so. Apart from that, posting in German would divert from my main reason of posting at all.
Und so nimmst Du mir die Moeglichkeit, zu ueben....boese!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Und so nimmst Du mir die Moeglichkeit, zu ueben....boese!!!!!!!!!!!
By now you should have figured out that I'm a self-centered egomaniac. 8)
-
By now you should have figured out that I'm a self-centered egomaniac. 8)
Als Christ ist das gewiss.
-
Als Christ ist das gewiss.
;D