New meta-analysis checks the correlation between intelligence and faith

10 What kind of people are Members of Mensa?

Description

This article is from the Mensa FAQ, by Phil Hill phil@miracle.com with numerous contributions by others.

Mensa: We Think, Therefore We Are. Mensans are the kind of people you
meet every day ... except that they enjoy using their minds more than
most. And they have IQ scores that would impress their neighbors!

Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in 100 countries throughout the
world. There are active Mensa organizations in 18 countries in Europe,
North America and around the Pacific Rim. American Mensa, Ltd. has
some 150 local chapters with more than 50,000 members. Founded at
Oxford University in 1946, Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify
and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage
research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to
promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its
members.

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Mensans range in age from 4 to 94, but most are between 20 and 49. In
education they range from preschoolers to high school dropouts to people
with multiple doctorates. There are Mensans on welfare and Mensans who
are millionaires. As far as occupations, the range is staggering.
Mensa has professors and truck drivers, scientists and firefighters,
computer programmers and farmers, artists, military people, musicians,
laborers, police officers, glassblowers - you name it. There are famous
Mensans and prize-winning Mensans, but there are many, many whose names
you wouldn't know.

* MENSA DEMOGRAPHICS (USA)

***snip***

49% Christian, 3% Unitarian, 9% Jewish, 7% agnostic, 3.6% atheist,
9% no religion

Read more: http://stason.org/TULARC/self-growth/mensa/10-What-kind-of-people-are-Members-of-Mensa.html#.UgkUm8u9KSM#ixzz2bm8mWEFH

NOVEMBER 5, 2009
Scientists and Belief

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A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public.1 Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/

Science and Religion Do Mix? Only 15 Percent of Scientists at Major Research Universities See Religion and Science Always in Conflict

Sep. 23, 2011 — Throughout history, science and religion have appeared as being in perpetual conflict, but a new study by Rice University suggests that only a minority of scientists at major research universities see religion and science as requiring distinct boundaries.

"When it comes to questions about the meaning of life, ways of understanding reality, origins of Earth and how life developed on it, many have seen religion and science as being at odds and even in irreconcilable conflict," said Rice sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund. But a majority of scientists interviewed by Ecklund and colleagues viewed both religion and science as "valid avenues of knowledge" that can bring broader understanding to important questions, she said.

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They interviewed a scientifically selected sample of 275 participants, pulled from a survey of 2,198 tenured and tenure-track faculty in the natural and social sciences at 21 elite U.S. research universities. Only 15 percent of those surveyed view religion and science as always in conflict. Another 15 percent say the two are never in conflict, and 70 percent believe religion and science are only sometimes in conflict. Approximately half of the original survey population expressed some form of religious identity, whereas the other half did not.

***snip***

Other findings:
*Scientists as a whole are substantially different from the American public in how they view teaching "intelligent design" in public schools. Nearly all of the scientists -- religious and nonreligious alike -- have a negative impression of the theory of intelligent design.
*Sixty-eight percent of scientists surveyed consider themselves spiritual to some degree.
*Scientists who view themselves as spiritual/religious are less likely to see religion and science in conflict.
*Overall, under some circumstances even the most religious of scientists were described in very positive terms by their nonreligious peers; this suggests that the integration of religion and science is not so distasteful to all scientists.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110921115923.htm