The strong need for comfort and reassurance in this often"scary" world of ours, means that the "need" for belief in "God" often DOES require less intellectual rigor so that those perfectly normal needs can be met (i.e., to be comforted, soothed). So, yes, the intelligent brain can often "come across" as a spoiler because of the way it challenges beliefs in "God". Therefore, it's little wonder ( some ) religious people have a vested interest in denouncing "human" intelligence because it can leave people feeling bereft of comfort. I suppose it depends on what you value most: The need to scrutinize superstitions or the need to be comforted by religion.
Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to analysis of scores of scientific studies stretching back over decades
by besty 48 Replies latest jw friends
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bats in the belfry
Study co-author Jordan Silberman says that it would be a mistake to assume their findings mean that if you’re a believer, you’re a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
To lump, say, Jehovah’s Witnesses with American evangelical Christians would be ridiculous for a study of this type, as JWs decry education (particularly for women), and evangelicals founded such intellectual bastions as Wheaton and currently laud such scholars as scientist Francis Collins, historian Mark Noll, and… well, you get my point.
So, what's he sayin' then? He is not lumping JWs together with this type of study because of what?
a) JWs are not a few fries short of a Happy Meal?
b) There is no Happy Meal with JWs?
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Giordano
Pride.
If you give in to that pride – particularly its highest form, which is putting yourself in the position of God – then there is no place for, well, God.
So maybe it’s not that religious people are less “intelligent” than atheists.
Maybe, in truth, the religious are the most intelligent of all. Not because they refuse to accept the facts, but because they do. Two in particular.
First, that there is a God.
And then the all-important second fact:
“And I’m not Him.”
James Emery White
This guy commenting on the study in question is a Pastor and Christian Blogger. And boy does he make a case for religious stupidity.
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besty
@Vanderhoven7
Maybe, in truth, the religious are the most intelligent of all. Not because they refuse to accept the facts, but because they do. Two in particular. First, that there is a God.
The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be proven to correspond to experience .
Can you verify that god exists?
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Ucantnome
i thought atheists are only 2% of the world's population
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steve2
One of the hallmarks of intelligence is questioning boundaries set by men. For example, the "Church" prescribed the earth as flat and attempts by "proud" mortals to prove it was not flat evoked the condemnation and anger of the Church.Still, when proof emerged to support the null hypothesis, the "Church"belatedly embraced the science for it does not look good to contradict mountainous evidence. Every step of the way through the Enlightenment and beyond, the religious voice has advanced a head-in-sand conservatism that has been smugly satisfied with the "accepted" views. If human civilization depended on religious thinkers to point the way forward, we'd still be in fiercely patriarchal societies stoning to death anyone who dared question the edicts of men. I do not thank God for living in a democratic society that strives to ensure equal rights for all - no, I thank secular society. Interestingly, when the JWs were initially heavily thwarted in their attempts to be politically neutral, who did they turn to for help? Not boring old Jehovah God, but the United States Supreme Court. Let's all stop the mad pretence: If you want anything done, stop praying and start thinking intelligently. Okay?
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besty
i thought atheists are only 2% of the world's population
Not sure what your point is.
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Ucantnome
There was no point it was just a mindless comment from a christian.
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