"Religious people tend to be smarter"

[surreptitious57]

Some one could be theist and a sceptic or freethinker without applying it to their
religion. Or equally could apply it but be fooled by the confirmation bias that they
would almost inevitably have to reference. However no one is completely sceptical
or freethinking all of the time about absolutely everything because we are as much
emotional beings as logical ones. And just because one is an atheist does not mean
you cannot still retain religious thinking in a non religious capacity. So this applies to
us too albeit maybe not so much. But whoever you are or whatever you believe or do
not believe in you are still the easiest person in the world to fool. And so one needs to
constantly be checking for conscious or sub conscious biases. Now you will never get it
perfect but over time and with practice you can make it as imperfect as is possible to be

[Shining_Finger]

Some one could be theist and a sceptic or freethinker without applying it to their
religion. Or equally could apply it but be fooled by the confirmation bias that they
would almost inevitably have to reference. However no one is completely sceptical
or freethinking all of the time about absolutely everything because we are as much
emotional beings as logical ones. And just because one is an atheist does not mean
you cannot still retain religious thinking in a non religious capacity. So this applies to
us too albeit maybe not so much. But whoever you are or whatever you believe or do
not believe in you are still the easiest person in the world to fool. And so one needs to
constantly be checking for conscious or sub conscious biases. Now you will never get it
perfect but over time and with practice you can make it as imperfect as is possible to be

A Parachute certainly doesn't work when it is so open it has no strings.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

Some one could be theist and a sceptic or freethinker without applying it to their
religion. Or equally could apply it but be fooled by the confirmation bias that they
would almost inevitably have to reference. However no one is completely sceptical
or freethinking all of the time about absolutely everything because we are as much
emotional beings as logical ones. And just because one is an atheist does not mean
you cannot still retain religious thinking in a non religious capacity. So this applies to
us too albeit maybe not so much. But whoever you are or whatever you believe or do
not believe in you are still the easiest person in the world to fool. And so one needs to
constantly be checking for conscious or sub conscious biases. Now you will never get it
perfect but over time and with practice you can make it as imperfect as is possible to be

I do agree with this, for the most part. And, I’m sure no atheist is perfectly open-minded and fully freethinking, because of events that have occurred in our lives, confirmation bias, because of our cognitive capacities, etc. I completely agree that all of us should do our best to be incessantly checking our biases, and I know we’ll never be perfect at it. In my opinion, in general, theists are more likely to be fooled and/or be sucked into certain beliefs such as bigfoot, alien abductions, psychics, faith healers, loch ness monster, witchcraft because of seeing it on T.V. or reading about it. I feel that they’re more likely to be swindled by someone in a scam. Their brains are less skeptical than those of non-believers in general, because we have awakened that in our brains. I feel there are more bullshit filters in our brains, with us than theists. We see how practicing skepticism actually allows us to figure out what’s true. A theist’s brain operates on faith and gullibility (not entirely), so, when extraordinary claims are presented before them, they are more likely to have faith that the claims are true.

[Homeless Nutter]

Well, if religious people truly are smart - they had me fooled...

[TubbyTubby]

No idea about relative intelligence levels but there is a noticeable poor use of grammar and bad spelling from a few theists here and other forums. I'm not perfect but I see a better level of writing from non theists here, even after pointing out an error for them they usually continue to spell the word wrong (or use the wrong word). They know who they are.

I don't know if that's stupidness or sheer bloody mindedness but if someone points out an error in my writing then I make damn sure I take it on board.

[houseofcantor]

Troll post. Everybody knows atheists are smarter as believers need their pastor to do their thinking for them. 

[brewer]

Smarter or just more devious?

[Lemonvariable72]

Personally I wouldn't expect to see a meaningful difference between atheists and theists in overall intelligence.

Everyone who learns to survive in the world has at least part of their brain running like an atheist.

I would disagree. There is a clear relationship between intelligence and skeptical inquiry. That is why atheists as a statistical group in the united states have will likely have a higher average intelligence then theists. This is bore out by the fact the statistical amount atheists in a population increases with education, thus the amount of atheists in aamerican university graduates is much higher then the average population . in the nations with largers numbers of atheists there is likely no differences as people are raised without religion and are less likely to even give it a second thought.

[marianomanto]

So I read this on a site a while back and was wondering if there is any validity to it.

The site said "Religious people tend to be geniuses/smarter people more often because they can think outside of the box and find loopholes and different scenarios where their claims would still be accurate"

I was wondering if there was any truth to this.

On one hand, the reasoning for believers supposedly being "Smarter" than non-believers actually seems to make sense in this statement(not that it adds any validity to god existing).

On the other hand, i've yet to come in contact, or see a person that fits this description.

I would like to see some data before saying such a thing. Anyway I think Religion (at least in Sciences) actually blocks advancement. If a Religious person says "I dont know this answer, so it was God" then he loses interest in looking further. Probably this can be extended to other fields. Religious people tend to fit God into whatever they fancy and the truth is lost in the process. Thats not smart for me...

[Heat]

In my opinion I think that sometimes geniuses are the ones who are most detatched from reality. I don't think that a lot of achievements could have been accomplished if everyone was a rationalist, and realist, sometimes it's the people who seem the least sane who end up accomplishing the most.

Just responding to whoever said that they disagree because people are detatched from reality and that makes them less smart. Overall, I agree with what robvalue said in his first post, that no matter what side you are on there is no real significant difference.