(March 12, 2012 at 10:01 am)5thHorseman Wrote: Atheists are more intelligent.

LSE Professor Satoshi Kanazawa has a study on it:
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf

Is it against the rules to say...fuck you?

How about coming up with a more rational response?

(March 12, 2012 at 10:01 am)5thHorseman Wrote: Atheists are more intelligent.

LSE Professor Satoshi Kanazawa has a study on it:

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf

I would say its the other way around - intelligent people are more likely to be atheists.

With the majority of world being theists and preaching one or the other form theism, being an atheist (for rational reasons) requires study and critical analysis of the presented theistic arguments. Intelligence is quite helpful in that endeavor.

(March 12, 2012 at 10:17 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: For the record, I didn't rationalize my way to atheism. Logic wasn't involved in the slightest. Yet I hope I come across as a mostly rational person.

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(March 12, 2012 at 10:01 am)5thHorseman Wrote: Atheists are more intelligent.

LSE Professor Satoshi Kanazawa has a study on it:

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf

Intelligence doesn't necessarily imply rationality either.

I'm not saying I don't find religious beliefs to be entirely silly, but I don't call the people who have them silly either.

Summer, what does that have to do with my point? My point was proving your assessment wrong. You mentioned intelligence, I remembered a study so I linked it, I said nothing about rationality. Although there is definately a case for atheists being more rational too.

Chad, you can say fuck you all you want, I'm fine with it.

Genkaus, you have a good point and I agree.

(March 12, 2012 at 10:23 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: How about coming up with a more rational response?

I will not. The OP is so arrogant and self-righteous, he has earned nothing but my contempt.

(March 12, 2012 at 11:04 am)ChadWooters Wrote:

(March 12, 2012 at 10:23 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: How about coming up with a more rational response?

I will not. The OP is so arrogant and self-righteous, he has earned nothing but my contempt.

Huh? I am the OP and I said nothing to you? Why are you calling me arrogant for posting a graphic? Is it because you have sand in your vagina?

Because there are highly intelligent people in the world who nonetheless have ridiculous beliefs, which is the point I've been making all along. I'm not sure why having a greater incidence of intelligence proves my assessment wrong - we still don't hold a monopoly on it - and I tend to agree with Rhythm and Genkaus, with a similar bent on rationality - that rational people have a higher incidence of atheism, not that atheists are naturally rational people.

The original point was that theists (with a broad brush) assume they are all important because of their god belief and thus shun the rational thinking that's required to recognize your minuscule place in the cosmos. This is false. Like I said, there are many many theists who still appreciate all science has to offer - including that sort of insight.

I apologize if I mistook the context of your comment and how it linked up with everything. Purely on an intelligence level we might have something to work with, but as it related to the OP I had to disagree simply because I know of and know a lot of atheists who have some pretty ridiculous beliefs no matter what their intelligence level is. My point was only that even if you're Stephen Hawking you could still be prey to irrationality and bias.

(March 12, 2012 at 11:04 am)ChadWooters Wrote:

(March 12, 2012 at 10:23 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: How about coming up with a more rational response?

I will not. The OP is so arrogant and self-righteous, he has earned nothing but my contempt.

Wtf does that have to do with what summer asked? you quoted me and said 'fuck you' then she quoted you, i'm not the OP and you've gone off course.

(March 12, 2012 at 11:04 am)ChadWooters Wrote:

(March 12, 2012 at 10:23 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: How about coming up with a more rational response?

I will not. The OP is so arrogant and self-righteous, he has earned nothing but my contempt.

That is your right, but he wasn't speaking to you personally, so personally cursing him wasn't any more necessary than perhaps quietly explaining that he was wrong.

(March 11, 2012 at 10:43 am)Tiberius Wrote:

(March 11, 2012 at 7:37 am)Phil Wrote: On the contrary my dear, all theists think that humans are special in the universe.

Bullshit. Theism = belief in God, just as Atheism = disbelief / non-belief in God. Theism is not specific about kinds of Gods, just as Atheism is not specific about kinds of Gods.

That's like saying mammals = nurse young with milk, and is not specific about whether the nurser has to have any biological metabolism.

Theism is a construct carried by human minds operating in a human society. Therefore it must carry traits compatible with its own on-going operation in the human minds in the context of societies, in addition to belief in gods. One such traits would have to be an assertion of its own relevence in the lives of those who hold it. The nearly universal form of this assertion comes in the form of "god will suspend the normal course of universe for you if you pray to it". A form of theism that says god is utterly indifferent to you, and all that you wish will not be granted to you if it contradicts an all emcompassing plan of universal progress will not be worth holding to most regardless of its appearent truth or untruth. Such a form of theism is still theism, but I bet it has no adherants population worth noting.

So it is insightful, if not strictly padentically definitional, to say all theists think that humans are special in the universe.