"Religious people tend to be smarter"

[bennyboy]

I'd like to put forward an idea about the OP.

It seems to me that those who are part of an organized institution-- go to church on Sundays, read the Bible, etc. etc. are probably slightly more organized, on average, than those who don't. In other words, I think that religious people, at least in America, may have family or other social advantages that could give them some advantage in their development.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yes, he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_..._afterlife

"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem—the most important of all human problems."

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text."

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

The last is my favorite. The term "unbounded" is a mathematical term, meaning a function (equation) that is not bounded by integers, but which goes from negative infinity to infinity. He may have been using it in a more colloquial context, simply to mean "bigger than I can express in words", but I like to think he deliberately chose the largest mathematical term he could express.

Quote-mining Ole Al is a cottage industry amongst theists, because everyone knows that having insight into the physics of gravity makes one an expert on everything else.

[ignoramus]

Even worse PT. They feel that if some science genius can proclaim his belief in God, then we should also follow suit like the good little mindless sheep that we are!

[ApeNotKillApe]

All of the greatest people in human history, all of them, share one defining quality: they're all dead. Jesus isn't dead.

[Chad32]

You can be a smart religious person. Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon, and quite the religious homophobe. The problem is that holy books have, at best, only kernels of truth in them. If there's any "out of the box" thinking to be had, it's the kind that does whatever is possible to find evidence for already held conclusion, despite what evidence says.

There are smart theists. There are dumb atheists. There are open minded theists, and close minded atheists. I'd say it all comes down to religion not always playing a strong part in every person's life. People use religion to justify their actions, instead of using it as a guideline, though in their defense the bible is pretty much impossible to follow if you take it all seriously. Judge not, lest ye be judged, but stone the gays to death.

[jenny1972]

Yes, he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_..._afterlife


The last is my favorite. The term "unbounded" is a mathematical term, meaning a function (equation) that is not bounded by integers, but which goes from negative infinity to infinity. He may have been using it in a more colloquial context, simply to mean "bigger than I can express in words", but I like to think he deliberately chose the largest mathematical term he could express.

Quote-mining Ole Al is a cottage industry amongst theists, because everyone knows that having insight into the physics of gravity makes one an expert on everything else.

id still consider him more of a deist than agnostic , he did say that he believed in 'spinoza's God' Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century philosopher . he did not believe in religions thats for sure he thought they were all very childish and simplistic . he also did not believe in a personal God but was convinced in the concept of God (it was just not a religious concept of God) which is what deists believe.

[i]it is a widespread belief that Spinoza equated God with the material universe. He has therefore been called the "prophet" and "prince" and most eminent expounder of pantheism. More specifically, in a letter to Henry Oldenburg he states, "as to the view of certain people that I identify God with Nature (taken as a kind of mass or corporeal matter), they are quite mistaken". For Spinoza, our universe (cosmos) is a mode under two attributes of Thought and Extension and that God has infinitely many other attributes which are not present in our world.
[/i]

[rexbeccarox]

I can't believe I'm posting this again.

A/theism has to do with belief.

A/gnosticism has to do with knowledge.

I, for example, am an agnostic atheist because I lack a belief in deities, but I don't claim to know whether they exist or not.

[Heat]

[quote pid='1081961' dateline='1444695624']
" The scientists’ religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. "

Also agnostic deist is pretty hard to define, unless someone specifically states it, based on the fact that almost all religious people would hardly ever be caught making contradictory statements(knowingly, ex. "I wouldnt want to believe in a cruel god, and I find no evidence for god" and then saying "my religious views are that I believe in god who has created this universe" etc. or whatever), it's more plausible to call Einstein an agnostic with the belief that god could exist, but not believing that one does.

Also,

1. How does someone "come to know god"? Are you just metaphorically speaking about the voices in your head or referring to a book of some sort? There is no definitive difference between people claiming they "speak to god" and people with schitzophrenia, and any normal person would be terrified if someone started talking to them in their head, even more so trying to influence their actions.

2. Why do you believe in a deist god? The belief in a deist god breaks down in arguments sake when you consider the argument. You believe that all this couldn't just come from nothing and that a god had to create it. Yet, when doing so you are just proposing a harder question and not answering the original one. Where did god come from? If you allow yourself to say we are so complex we must have been designed, you must also ask where a god that is infinitely more complex and had the power to create us and exist in its own complex self at the same time came from. And in that, the argument falls flat, and the answer ultimately can't be found.

sorry im probabally mistaken i was under the impression that agnostic meant simply " i dont know " . most people will readily admit that they dont have it all figured out and do not believe they can figure it all out . even many religious people who believe that God exists . based on all the statements ive read its clear that einstein did believe in God he just did not believe in the God portrayed in religions.

i think your assumption that any normal person would be terrified if someone started talking to them in their head is not true although people react differently so i can only speak for myself its not terrifying its exciting and interesting . I dont claim to know any of the questions you are asking ' where did God come from ' and the rest . I dont need to know every single mystery of the universe to believe in God , my belief in God is just because God proved to my doubtful mind that He exists so i believe because of that proof not because i think i have all the answers to everything .

---

Where did you get those quotes?  --  Particularly the "Everyone" one . . . since the vast majority of scientists are atheist?  
And if you are going to post quotes, you need an attribution or a citation.

just go to google and type in einstein quotes on God he says quite a bit about God
[/quote]

@jenny1972
So why do you believe something with no proof? You recognize that you can't distinguish a scitzophrenic person from someone "talking to god", you realize you have no proof, you realize that by believing in a deist god that has not contacted humanity in any form such as the Bible or Quran, you realize that you wouldn't believe anything else without evidence.

Seems to me you are just being stubborn, you have developed a mindset that allows you to accept logic, and then still deny the outcome it provides. You've basically admitted in everything you've said that all the evidence points towards you being wrong, but you still believe it. That's not faith, that's childishness to put it bluntly. To realize that all the evidence points otherwise and still deny the outcome it gives, that's simply the inability to accept being wrong.

That's a much less respectable opinion than any than any religious based one. At least religious people think they are right, or think they have a credible reason to believe. Don't fool yourself in to thinking you are holding a "progressive view" on god, or are more nuanced than the old stone aged scriptures, you're not, you're just being stupidly stubborn, just because you have this broad concept of God does not give you some type of pass to claim you accept the positions that disprove yours, but continue to believe otherwise.

[Ravenshire]

Once again this must be trotted out to debunk another faither's misunderstanding of theism/atheism gnosticism/agnosticism:

[jenny1972]

@jenny1972
So why do you believe something with no proof? You recognize that you can't distinguish a scitzophrenic person from someone "talking to god", you realize you have no proof, you realize that by believing in a deist god that has not contacted humanity in any form such as the Bible or Quran, you realize that you wouldn't believe anything else without evidence.

Seems to me you are just being stubborn, you have developed a mindset that allows you to accept logic, and then still deny the outcome it provides. You've basically admitted in everything you've said that all the evidence points towards you being wrong, but you still believe it. That's not faith, that's childishness to put it bluntly. To realize that all the evidence points otherwise and still deny the outcome it gives, that's simply the inability to accept being wrong.

That's a much less respectable opinion than any than any religious based one. At least religious people think they are right, or think they have a credible reason to believe. Don't fool yourself in to thinking you are holding a "progressive view" on god, or are more nuanced than the old stone aged scriptures, you're not, you're just being stupidly stubborn, just because you have this broad concept of God does not give you some type of pass to claim you accept the positions that disprove yours, but continue to believe otherwise.
[/quote]



@heatiosrs
i already told you that i do have proof that is the reason why i believe if i didnt have it i would not believe id be an athiest like you . I dont know whats going on in anyone elses head or what their relationship with God is all i know is my own experience just like you cant determine if i am having a spiritual experience or if i have a mental illness you dont know whats in my mind or have any idea what exactly my experience details all you have is an uninformed opinion based on your atheist belief which is worth less than nothing. I do believe that God contacts  people all the time outside of the Bible Quran , exc..  and thats right i wouldn't believe anything else without evidence either  why do you assume those who believe in God dont require the same proof that you do as if we were another species people dont believe unless they are convinced .  I would be stubborn if i did not believe something that has been proven to me to be true , logic is believing what has been proven . what evidence , not your opinion or the opinion of others , points to me being wrong about God or proves that my experience with God isnt real ?