By David Anderson
If you’re of the pew-warming sort you haven’t a clue – is the more crass assessment of a project that finds religious people to be less intelligent than atheists.
“The studies used in Zuckerman’s paper included a life-long analysis of the beliefs of a group of 1,500 gifted children – those with IQs over 135 – in a study which began in 1921 and continues today. Even at 75 to 91 years of age, the children from Lewis Terman’s study scored lower for religiosity than the general population – contrary to the widely held belief that people turn to God as they age.”
Evidently, the smarter you are, the smaller God becomes. And the older you get your smartness even grows while God meanwhile is the one who becomes senile.
While “58% of randomly selected scientists in the United States expressed disbelief in, or doubt regarding the existence of God; this proportion rose to nearly 70% for the most eminent scientists.”
There is a most imminent (I know, different spelling – different meaning too) danger (but then what do I know) in depending on (hanging from) the common thread (noose) that connects most explanations for why ‘A’ for atheist comes before ‘r’ for religious (other than in the alphabet). It would appear that the scientific deduction is actually more utilitarian and pragmatic than intellectually honest: “More intelligent people get higher level jobs and better employment and higher salary.”
If A = B, and B = C then A = C.
In other words, to my small-brain way of thinking in a feeble attempt to follow His Eminence line of thinking, since Atheist individuals (A), are Better employed (B), and the Better employed (B) thus have more Cash, Capital and Capacity – mental and financial (C), then Atheists are smarter.
Or something like that.
Proof positive from the horses’ mouth: “Intelligent people are more likely to be successful in life – and this may mean they ‘need’ religion less.”
Or, like a bumper sticker I saw once, ‘the one with the most toys wins.’
Although I’m not sure what the prize is.
Post-script: while scrolling around on the Internet I ran across an article about the world’s most expensive car crash, involving “a chain reaction that ultimately wrecked or destroyed 14 vehicles including eight Ferraris, three Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Nissan GT-R Skyline and a Toyota Prius that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Smart guys though.
