Why Are Xtians So Stupid?

[Minimalist]

[Anomalocaris]

[no one]

Thinking is hard. It's best left to other people.

[Anomalocaris]

Thinking is hard. It's best left to other people.

If only they would shut up and actually leave the thinking to other people.

They would rather no one at all thinks except their pastors, and those disgusting only think about how to better fleece them.  But when they are sick they would want modern medicine made possible by understanding of evolution to still avail them as if by miracle.

[Gwaithmir]

Christians are not necessarily stupid. You have to consider the power of indoctrination and fear when applied to little children. I went through the entire Roman Catholic indoctrination mill. It involved a lot of physical and mental abuse by my teachers and a bible thumping, overbearing tyrant of a father. It took me at least fifteen years involving a lot of comparative religious study and introspection to overcome the brainwashing and finally come out as an atheist.

[Reltzik]

It's not stupidity. It's trained and willful ignorance on a (usually) narrow subject. It's taking all the stuff that smart people, Xians included, use to detect bullshit -- things like healthy skepticism, critical thinking, questioning one's own bias, and so forth -- and deliberately setting all that aside to embrace the opposite, faith, as a virtue whenever their own religion comes up. .... and then going right back to being (on average) as rational as anyone else when it's time to, say, compare prices for a new car.

[Minimalist]

You have to consider the power of indoctrination and fear when applied to little children.

A quarter of the population has somehow managed to overcome that handicap.  The percentage is growing.  I am not willing to give assholes who think magic is real any kind of a break.  Wake up, assholes.  You are living in the 21st Fucking Century.

[Angrboda]

I think theists must take a vow of stupidity. I find it hard to explain any other way.

[onlinebiker]

It's because humans are contrary critters.

As a species we are able to embrace diametrically opposed ideas without being bothered by or indeed recognizing the contradictions.

Hence the " pro life" individual who kills abortion doctors and other such whackadoodles.
(Edit to clarify - the pro lifer is the whackadoodle, not the doctor)

Dig deep enough, you' re likely to find such behavior in yourself.

[Nakara]

My parents aren't stupid. Sure I think they're dead wrong and they can't seem to understand the way I disbelieve, but they are far from stupid for continuing to believe in god. I still get why they do. Indoctrination is a powerful tool and I don't necessarily blame people for being unable or even unwilling to overcome it. Myself, indoctrination has permanently scarred me with anxiety.

I didn't magically become smarter when I became an atheist--more skeptical for sure and a great deal more informed, but smarter? Eeeegh, 100% guaranteed there are Christians who are way smarter than me. Our way of thinking is just different. Do I think they're wrong? Hell yeah. But stupid? Sure, some of 'em may be, but all of 'em? Nah.