Why do Christians sound stupid?

[Angrboda]

I'm of agreement with pad that theists on atheist forums are likely atypical. What I notice more are two factors, a) the tendency to stereotype, and b) domain specific effects.

First off, yes, especially in the United States, there is a tendency toward less education and somewhat lower intelligence among believers, but two facts stand out.

First, both lesser education and lower intelligence are correlated with poverty, and it's well known that poverty correlates with religiosity. So for any given religious person of your socioeconomic class, it's questionable whether they are more likely to be less intelligent or less well educated than you. Moreover, while there certainly appears to be some systematic differences, the overlap between the groups is far greater than the differences. As with questions of race or sex and intelligence, the overlap makes dealing with individuals of a particular class according to those differences little more than irrational stereotyping. The difference between the average intelligence of the mongoloid races and that of the caucasoid and negroid races is in the same ball park as that between atheists and theists, yet I doubt many of you caucasians compare yourselves to Asians with that in mind.

Second, and this applies primarily to America, as I haven't studied the situation globally, but there appears to be a distinct knowledge gap between theists and non-theists. First, even after controlling for education and similar factors, theists seem less knowledgeable about both religion in general and their own religion. And this is likely the main area where these groups self-identify. (And I've noted in the past that vocal atheists in particular, are driven to learn about religion in ways that many religious are not.) So on that score alone, the theists may appear less intelligent when talking about their religion, but not necessarily about other subjects. On top of that are a whole host of effects resulting from cognitive bias in which people look upon people they disagree with as inferior to them (aside from them actually having inferior intellect or education.) These cognitive biases tend to polarize people into already polarized belief communities even beyond any differences otherwise. And that theists and non-theists both draw on literature, arguments and standards which are completely divergent, the atheist witnessing a theist engaging in a form of reasoning she considers illegitimate, appealing to such a source, and so on, is likely to solidify the image of incompetence in the non-theist's mind.

I've met very intelligent and knowledgeable conservative theists. I've also spoken with the other kind. Do I think there are systematic differences? Yes, of course there are, but the cause is unclear. Does this mean that any given theist we meet is likely to be less intelligent or less well educated than you as a non-theist are? Not sufficiently significantly to use as a basis for stereotyping.