Atheists and suicide

[Tempus]

If you were capable of following an argument you would know that I wasn't talking about William Craig. I was pointing out that professors of philosophy in major universities could be considered as intellectuals, so using them as an example of intellectuals is valid. It was in response to a statement by Tempus that atheism correlates to high intelligence.

Ok, I see you are being serious. Firstly I'll just point out that when someone makes an assertion (which I did) it makes more sense, to my thinking anyway, to ask them for evidence for that assertion than to begin by refuting it. I'll address your refutation anyway.

You say that intellectuals, as listed by WLC, run counter to my claim that atheism correlates positively with intelligence. This isn't a particularly good refutation of my claim because several individuals (out of a vast number of people) don't prove or disprove anything. It would be akin to objecting to the claim "being human correlates with bipedalism" by pointing out that some people have one or no legs. While that is an imperfect example, it does illustrate that specific instances to the contrary are not important to the truth of the statement unless they're statistically significant. Now, had I said "only atheists are intelligent" your refutation would be relevant.

Have a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity...telligence
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2...n-God.html

There were some surveys done regarding belief in the Royal Society (it's actually referenced in the second article) which I can't seem to find. I also vaguely recall one done at the US equivalent (NAS?). Both showed very low rates of belief in god(s).