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After reading a list of famous Atheists, Freethinkers and Humanists I‘ve come to believe that there is a correlation between high intelligence and a disbelief in God. Do you agree with this premise?

Marionville 10 July 2
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1

Studies have shown that people with higher IQ's are more likely to be Atheists than people with lower IQ's.

[independent.co.uk]

[livescience.com]

I thought so, but it seems like boasting to say it!

5

There are, and have been, lots of intelligent theists. But I don't think there are many intelligent fundamentalists.

Though I agree with this, those theists do tend to not follow holy books to the letter. They tend to understand history and regional social ideals play a large part of what's in those books. They also tend to compare several religions and come to the idea that though there must be some sort of deity or creative life force, and strongly follow certain thologies, they also come to the idea their beliefs are clearly not scientifically supportable, are simply personal beliefs. I know a few that won't push their beliefs on others for that very reason and tend to be a bit disgusted with those who do, even by those from the same faith.

Of course that is a generalization of that sort of person but that's where I was coming from with this, a generalization.

@AmyLF Exactly.

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Some of the greatest minds in history, were theist. Do I think there is a correlation with disbelief and intelligence. Yes.

1

HI
Your premise may be a bit self-serving, clearly their are intelligent atheists as well as intelligent theists. i don't believe the intellect is the driving force here. exposure to and willingness to accept skeptical thinking is key. What is the benefit to a theist, living in a tightly controlled theist community / family, coming out of the closet? (besides the obvious to us) Indoctrinations run deep, and there is always Pascal's wager.

Canndue. I tried to word my question a a way that did not imply that I think I myself to belong in that category, although I do have a high I.Q. The question was prompted by my observing a list which included some of the most eminent minds of the past two hundred years and including our present generation. Of course quite a few have been in the sphere of science and philosophy so one would expect them to hold atheistic views but by no means all of them. I was surprised by the sheer number of names on that list, some of whom I had no idea were atheist and that was a revelation. Pascsl’s Wager implies that an intelligent person go along with the idea that they believe in god because on balance the benefit of doing so would outweigh disadvantage of professing disbelief. However, the flaw in that argument is that once reason has taken hold of the mind it cannot be set aside easily. To quote Shakespeare....” to thine own self be true”, in my mind to do otherwise would render our lives meaningless.

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I don't know if it's a high level of intelligence that is the factor or those capable of having a high level of skepticism which may or may not be correlated to intelligence. I know some skeptical people that are not all that smart, and some really smart people that are believers; as in they believe a man walked on water 2000 yrs ago. Go figure.

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I don't know. I don't think I am any smarter than anyone else really, some, sure. I'm of average intelligence, and I'm an Atheist.

Maybe you are just being modest ...eh!

@Marionville I wish I was, but I take the time to learn. I try to learn something new everyday, be it about Biology, astrophysics, phycology, or any number of things. I just take the time to think. I'm not smarter than most, I just value learning, and I think that the religious think they have the answer. I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence, and everything to do with what you value, if you value God, you will invest your time into God, if you value learning you will invest your time into learning. This doesn't mean that religious people are dumb, they just have their priorities mixed up, of course this is just my opinion, and they would most likely say the same about me.

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Strongly Agree

2

Overall, I'd say yes. Of course there will be exceptions (there always are), but for the most part, I think it's true.

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