Religious people are less intelligent than atheists

[Banned]

[Pat Mustard]

[bennyboy]

I'd say that on average, university students and professors are likely to be more intelligent than the average person. That intelligence will correlate with whatever values exist in the majority of post-secondary institutions.

For example, I'd say that these days, it's likely that there's a positive correlation between certain social values and intelligence.

[GrandizerII]

[Banned]

Even with all the flaws of the research posted in the OP it's substantially better than the "study" you're linking to. Work done by rcc researchers in the most catholic university in Europe is inevitably going to toe the line of "we have the conclusion, now lets find something to support it".

My reading of the whole situation is not that atheists are more intelligent (at least in a way that is statistaclly significant), but that they are better educated, especially in critical thinking (the tools which allow you to deconstruct an argument anf find flaws, logical inconsistencies and outright lies), thus why you see university educated people likely to be atheist and post grads even more likely still.

That's right, there will be bias on either side of the argument. A radio program spoke about this survey and it was supposedly found that churches are more likely to consist of the lower classes in society, which are relatively uneducated. While this speaks well of charity, it isn't necessarily a reflection of the 'brains' of all religious people either.

But to obtain an education in a university, you have to be able to absorb atheist ideas. And if the intellectually ambitious of society are being filtered through this system, then of course there will be a measurable correlation between the educated and atheistic philosophies.

[Succubus]

What are these atheistic philosophies of which you speak?

[Banned]

What are these atheistic philosophies of which you speak?

1st year Uni will open that up to you.

[Cyberman]

But to obtain an education in a university, you have to be able to absorb atheist ideas. And if the intellectually ambitious of society are being filtered through this system, then of course there will be a measurable correlation between the educated and atheistic philosophies.

Damn. If only there was an expression to describe a 'mind' that is 'open' to assessing new and different ideas critically. I hear that theists are the super bestest at doing that.

Let me guess - you were homeschooled, weren't you?

[KevinM1]

What are these atheistic philosophies of which you speak?

1st year Uni will open that up to you.

Ah, the good ole passing of the buck.

No, you made an assertion. Back it up. BTW, I think you'll find that most of us have degrees, so we've experienced what a 1st year at a university is like.

[Pat Mustard]

But to obtain an education in a university, you have to be able to absorb atheist ideas. And if the intellectually ambitious of society are being filtered through this system, then of course there will be a measurable correlation between the educated and atheistic philosophies.

Well done you've completely missed my point. People as a rule don't become atheist because they are "exposed to atheist ideas", and universities are not chock a block with atheism. Most people become atheist because a) they're brought up that way or b) they've examined religion(s) and found something lacking and have thus discarded them.

What a good third level education will do (and if you're lucky a good second level education too) is give you the tools to look at a problem, critically analyse it and come up with a solution. That's not atheism, that's reasoning.