"Religious people tend to be smarter"

[Silver]

Militant atheist: I know there is no god. I can prove it by the fact that there is no evidence for god.

[bennyboy]

I wonder if the subconscious of religious people knows that they benefit from their belief, and so they don't put a lot thought into it.

They say that intelligent people are more easily hypnotized, because they have a superior power of imagination.  I find it quite easy to find that intelligent people can easily be religious, because the world view of an intelligent person is more complex, and therefore more full of mystery, than that of a stupid person.  This means more chance for superstition, not less-- as easily revealed by my Beagle's apparent lack of belief in God.

Cheese, he believes in.  God, not so much.

[Joods]

One word: NO

[Heat]

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 didn't read all the posts, about half.  I heard that atheists know more about religion than theist.  I would think it would be the opposite, sort of like they say junkies have a higher IQ.  Then, it isn't too smart to shoot up heroin.  Also, someone said "can one believe the study anyhow?", it all depends on what smart, educated, and IQ are.

That's a completely crazy comparison to make. It's not even in the same spectrum. Here we are talking about philosophical ideas, and knowledge, not physical actions that detriment your health, the comparison doesn't even make sense. Not all Atheists know more about religion than theists, careful generalizing, however a majority of Atheists do indeed know more about religion than Theists, because theists are most likely indoctrinated in to their religion from birth, and continue believing this belief without really taking time to analyze it or learn about it. Atheists know more generally speaking, because they are atheists as a result of learning about Religion. 

Plus it's irrelevant. To use an obtuse comparison, it would be as though someone believed Harry Potter was real, and I did not. It's irrelevant in terms of the knowledge about either position, because either one of us could be more knowledgeable than the other about the subject. There is no direct coorelation. However, if we want to base it on today's statistics as well as most probably the future's, Atheists tend to know more about religion because knowing-knowledge, is a form of logic, in the context of this, of reading and analyzing the book, and people more often than not convert to Atheism because they end up learning and gaining more knowledge about religion. 

I can see why you are confused at first glance. It's because of societal upbringing, it's completely flipped the default position. The default position should mean that hardly anyone believes religion is true, and because of that there is no real reason to learn about it, as it has no impact on daily life. However, we've flipped it, so religion is what is taught as the default position, and this is why atheists are more often than not theists before turning to atheism, because that's what's become a social norm. and once you realize this belief is false you also have an impulse to gain more and more information because of how long it may have held value in your life, and how prominent it is in others.

[henryp]

I wonder if the subconscious of religious people knows that they benefit from their belief, and so they don't put a lot thought into it.

They say that intelligent people are more easily hypnotized, because they have a superior power of imagination.  I find it quite easy to find that intelligent people can easily be religious, because the world view of an intelligent person is more complex, and therefore more full of mystery, than that of a stupid person.  This means more chance for superstition, not less-- as easily revealed by my Beagle's apparent lack of belief in God.

Cheese, he believes in.  God, not so much.

That's how religion got me to begin with.  As a youngin' I was raised Catholic, so that was 'truth' by default.  And I was quite creative as an apologist supporting that 'truth.'  Enough that I could hold my own against non-believers.  Starting with a default 'truth' rather than choosing one set me back 15 years in my philosophizing.  Which makes me a bit sad, because my 20yo brain was much more dynamic than my old rusty brain.  I'd have liked to send the ideas I bat around now back to the younger me to play with.

[Heat]

They say that intelligent people are more easily hypnotized, because they have a superior power of imagination.  I find it quite easy to find that intelligent people can easily be religious, because the world view of an intelligent person is more complex, and therefore more full of mystery, than that of a stupid person.  This means more chance for superstition, not less-- as easily revealed by my Beagle's apparent lack of belief in God.

Cheese, he believes in.  God, not so much.

That's how religion got me to begin with.  As a youngin' I was raised Catholic, so that was 'truth' by default.  And I was quite creative as an apologist supporting that 'truth.'  Enough that I could hold my own against non-believers.  Starting with a default 'truth' rather than choosing one set me back 15 years in my philosophizing.  Which makes me a bit sad, because my 20yo brain was much more dynamic than my old rusty brain.  I'd have liked to send the ideas I bat around now back to the younger me to play with.

Instead of thinking about what 20yo brain could have accomplished without theism, start thinking about what 50 year old brain couldn't have accomplished with it!

Glass half full, my friend.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It might mean they're more creative, but that is only one aspect of intelligence.

It's like assuming a very tall man must be good at basketball.

I would think one would be deemed creative if they wrote a work of fiction, not admired one(let alone holding it to be real - that's what we call madness/stupidity).

Excluded-middle. Certainly you're aware that many creators in the various fields of the arts are religious. Being religious doesn't preclude creativity. Surely someone as smart as you would know that.

[Alex K]

I would think one would be deemed creative if they wrote a work of fiction, not admired one(let alone holding it to be real - that's what we call madness/stupidity).

Excluded-middle. Certainly you're aware that many creators in the various fields of the arts are religious. Being religious doesn't preclude creativity. Surely someone as smart as you would know that.

Religious persons who are creative? Who has ever heard of such a thing!

[Excited Penguin]

I would think one would be deemed creative if they wrote a work of fiction, not admired one(let alone holding it to be real - that's what we call madness/stupidity).

Excluded-middle. Certainly you're aware that many creators in the various fields of the arts are religious. Being religious doesn't preclude creativity. Surely someone as smart as you would know that.

I'm not even going to respond to that.

[Excited Penguin]

Ok, you are both idiots.