Religion

muriel_volestrangler

(101,258 posts)

25. I presume you're talking about American atheists

Mon Aug 12, 2013, 06:08 PM

Aug 2013

because there are, for example, a lot of Chinese atheists in the world.

" Do you think that might play a role here? Or is that group presumably more intelligent as well?"

When you say "that group", do you mean the group consisting of people who are all of "white, straight, male, educated, employed and financially stable"?

Certainly, there is a correlation between intelligence and being educated, employed and financially stable, and fairly obvious mechanisms for causation. There might be something to the 'opium of the people' hypothesis, which seems to be what you're getting at.

I was unaware that atheists are more likely to be straight than believers are. That is surprising, given that many religions denigrate LGBT people.

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New meta-analysis checks the correlation between intelligence and faith [View all] rug Aug 2013 OP

I'm having trouble opening the article, but I would question the validity of any cbayer Aug 2013 #1

There ought to be as many dots above 100 as below. lumberjack_jeff Aug 2013 #2

Correct. That is the point that I was trying to make as well. cbayer Aug 2013 #6

I guess the rest of the world is the opposite of Lake Woebegone; no one is above average. n/t lumberjack_jeff Aug 2013 #8

Let me take a whack at why that's not so. dimbear Aug 2013 #26

It appears that only about 13 out of 137 countries are of average or above intelligence ... Jim__ Aug 2013 #3

And from what I did see, the bulk of those studied (87%) were from western countries. cbayer Aug 2013 #7

Yea, Wilson and Sociobiolgy gave IQ scores a bad reputation. rug Aug 2013 #11

The graph is just one of the 63 studies muriel_volestrangler Aug 2013 #13

My read was that although they found a higher number of studies with cbayer Aug 2013 #16

I'm not sure what you mean by 'substantiating' correlation muriel_volestrangler Aug 2013 #17

Because other studies had claimed to have made a correlation, cbayer Aug 2013 #18

A meta study is defiend as 'looking at other studies and not doing their own' muriel_volestrangler Aug 2013 #19

I am very familiar with what a meta study is, muriel. cbayer Aug 2013 #22

No, the graph posted in the OP does not tell the tale at all muriel_volestrangler Aug 2013 #23

You are correct about the title. cbayer Aug 2013 #24

I presume you're talking about American atheists muriel_volestrangler Aug 2013 #25

There is also a correlation between being part of a privilege class and cbayer Aug 2013 #28

"More than 87 percent of the participants were from the US, the UK, and Canada." Jim__ Aug 2013 #4

Mensa members are supposed to be very intelligent so I decided to see how many are religious. ... spin Aug 2013 #5

I don't find this surprising at all. cbayer Aug 2013 #9

In high school I had a close friend who was a member of Mensa. ... spin Aug 2013 #10

Don't get me wrong, I like super intelligent people. cbayer Aug 2013 #14

Unfortunately, being in that top 2% okasha Aug 2013 #20

The Mensa data you quote tells us they are far more nonreligious than the average in America, dimbear Aug 2013 #21

The data on scientists closely matches members of Mensa. ... spin Aug 2013 #27

no data for people above 110 IQ? eShirl Aug 2013 #12

I think those are averages within specific countries. cbayer Aug 2013 #15