Several of the highest-IQ people on the planet are theists, something like 8 out of the top 10, if I recall correctly. That is, they have expressed agreement with the existence, or at least the tentative existence, of God. A couple are even outright Christians.
Clearly, there's no connection between "super-smart" and "comes to the right conclusion" (or the wrong one). One could easily say that an extremely high intelligence lends a susceptibility to religious-type thinking, unless insulated by skepticism at a very young age, because they are susceptible to a desire to fit in with "normals", early in life, and are more imaginative than an average person. The combination may well lead to a deep root of magical thinking, and this is made worse by the defensive mechanisms of the religious brain-virus (meme), which teach the person to segregate parts of their brain (cognitive dissonance) and to reject any kind of thought which might challenge the beliefs locked away in the segregated units, so to speak.
I have seen this phenomenon in my own father (Chemical/Nuclear Engineer w/ Master's in Process Engineering), who can literally list every heavy radioisotope's decay-chain, and can write by memory the equations for the rate of decay, but still thinks the world is 6000 years old. My fiancee will try to engage him on chemistry talks (since she's a Christian, which disarms the defenses he keeps up against me, but she's also a biochemist and evolutionist) to "run him into a wall of logic" which would force him to challenge those sequestered parts of his fundie brain, but you can almost hear the "pop" of the fuses when those parts start to come into contact, protecting him, and he'll immediately shut the conversation down.
Clearly, there's no connection between "super-smart" and "comes to the right conclusion" (or the wrong one). One could easily say that an extremely high intelligence lends a susceptibility to religious-type thinking, unless insulated by skepticism at a very young age, because they are susceptible to a desire to fit in with "normals", early in life, and are more imaginative than an average person. The combination may well lead to a deep root of magical thinking, and this is made worse by the defensive mechanisms of the religious brain-virus (meme), which teach the person to segregate parts of their brain (cognitive dissonance) and to reject any kind of thought which might challenge the beliefs locked away in the segregated units, so to speak.
I have seen this phenomenon in my own father (Chemical/Nuclear Engineer w/ Master's in Process Engineering), who can literally list every heavy radioisotope's decay-chain, and can write by memory the equations for the rate of decay, but still thinks the world is 6000 years old. My fiancee will try to engage him on chemistry talks (since she's a Christian, which disarms the defenses he keeps up against me, but she's also a biochemist and evolutionist) to "run him into a wall of logic" which would force him to challenge those sequestered parts of his fundie brain, but you can almost hear the "pop" of the fuses when those parts start to come into contact, protecting him, and he'll immediately shut the conversation down.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
