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Is it correct that Atheists are smarter than religious?

NR92 6 Apr 23
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11 comments

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I'll go with more skeptical.

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Short answer is ... Yes, atheists are smarter than religious persons It is more of a better application, or makign use of knowledge than an ability to accumulate it.

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This question gets asked in various forms over and over again. @LenHezell53 has it right, it depends on definitions. Atheism does not confer intelligence on people that they don't already possess, but it does inherently tend to reflect thinking that's more evidence-based and better tethered to reality and is more likely to reflect critical thinking. This certainly selects for people who are more self-aware and willing to push back against the weaknesses in their thought processes that natural selection has baked in so to speak. It tends to weed out people who want to think what is comfortable / comforting and accepted.

Given the minority status of atheists, it also tends to select for iconoclasts and provocateurs, for people who go more their own way. That last will change as atheism becomes more diverse over time; I'm not saying it's necessarily a virtue, just the way things tend to fall out. Similarly atheism will tend to become more diverse politically. It already has some conservative and libertarian voices; it will have more in time. It will also become lower in average intelligence by some measures in time.

So we should be humble about all this, it is not like we are smarter because we are atheists, we just had the smarts and courage to embrace a minority and often reviled belief position, to not be joiners. But in time it will be easier and less socially costly to be an unbeliever and then I think it will become true that atheists are on balance no smarter than any other group. Maybe some moderate bias toward critical thinking will always be in the mix, but we're going to be saddled with embarrassing asshats just like every other group.

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It pretty much depends on how you define Smart.
If smart means that you think analytically and require evidence and tangible proof then yes
If smart means knowledgeable, then not necessarily
If smart means willing to bilk money out the mentally weak, gullible and frightened then the professed religious leaderships have the edge.
If smart means being willing to listen and accept unquestioningly and believe what you are told to believe on the promise of an eternal and divine afterlife then no, the religious are far smarter than the non religious.

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some are and some are not. atheists have ONE thing in common: a lack of belief in gods. everything else is anyone's bet. you can't even say they're necessarily more logical because not everyone came to atheism the same way.

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Education and intelligence are separate entities. Yes, there may often be a correlation. I also like to think there is a difference in intelligence and being knowledgeable. I'm still looking for the right term elsewhere as well - someone can be intelligent, like Ben Carsin a brilliant brain surgeon and dumb as shit, like Ben Carson believer that pyramids are grain silos.

pretty sure you mean ben carson... but your points are, nonetheless, well made.

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@genessa exactly. Why carson I don't know. Changed it. Thanks.

@Beowulfsfriend lol i knew who you meant 🙂)

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Someone that believes in pregnant virgins and talking snakes can't be smart. 99% of scientists in the world are atheists, as religious people hate science in general.

Alexa Level 5 Apr 23, 2019
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Have you read all the posts and replies on this site

Yes I did and I do, I give reply too if it is necessary, I ask just because I want to know what do others think, and it makes me learn a lot and, comments are my favorites part in social media 🙂.

@Noor92 ok, I don't believe your question has an exact answer, smarter is not measured in education but in application.

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I think Gervais is exaggerating for comic effect but it's while since I looked at the numbers.
An inverse correlation between academic achievement and religiosity has been noted. Though causation could run either way. Could be argued that a many forms of religious upbringing deters academic or pursuits particularly the scientific. Could be that education damages faith.
A lower than proportionate number of atheists exist in the prison population. However again this is open to interpretation. Arguments that prisoners "find God" either as a way of coping with troubling times or in as a means to demonstrate the rehabilitation that the parole board will be looking for, have been countered by examining the pre arrest religiosity of fist time offenders. The effect is reduced but still significant. However confounding variables such as a link between poverty and both religiosity and incarceration rates may come into play.

I disagree on your representation of prisoners finding god in prison. Atheist do not find god. They have already done enough research to verify their ideology is solid. Prisoners simply go back to their religious roots, not find them.

@Dicaron my representation of prisoners "finding God" is that an argument has been put forward and further research has found that argument wanting. What precisely are you disagreeing with: what I'm saying or what I'm quoting?

@Dicaron they refer to it as finding god. it tends not to happen to atheists, as you note. it is almost always, maybe ALWAYS always, a christian god they find, too. that fellow keeps wandering off and needing to be found, eh?

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It’s only natural that most scientists are atheist, there are a few who believe in god but it puzzles me how they can rationalise it to themselves. It’s a mistake though, to believe that all atheists and agnostics are smarter than all believers, that is patently nonsense.

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In general yes.

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