Comments on: Why Aren’t Christians Smarter?

By: dsivis

dsivis — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:29:25 +0000

“Love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind.”

I’m pretty sure that’s from Leviticus. It’s part of the sh’ma, the passage for proclaiming the existence of god and keeping god in mind.

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:56:30 +0000

Maarten:

I didn’t get the sense that the first part, or any part, of the original article was tongue-in-cheek. I could have misinterpreted it. It’s sometimes difficult to convey low-key humor or irony in print. I think he was serious, even if he wasn’t overly serious in his examples (trivia contest, etc.).

Anyway, the link to the original article is embedded at the beginning of my article, so you’re welcome to go to the source and read it yourself.

By: Maarten

Maarten — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:06:51 +0000

I have the feeling that the very first quoted line was firmly tongue-in-cheek. The next lines do not show a whole lot of reverence to God. These are, in my opinion, not the words of a close-minded zealot.

Without having read the origional article, I’d say this was one christian admonishing his brethren to use their brains and to not act so stupidly. A laudable effort

Personally, I have voiced many of those same concerns myself.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:59:43 +0000

With regard to the study that vjack alluded to, not only did one’s level of religiosity tend to diminish as an individual moved up the educational scale, but for those with higher degrees of education who still retain a belief in god, the reasons they give for that belief are different from your run-of-the-mill bible thumper. For example, your typical fundie usually has no better than a high school-level education. They usually offer the dumbest arguments in defense of their beliefs, such as “My family raised me to be a Christian”, or “Without god how could we be good?”. If an individual has a college-level education and still believes, design arguments are usually cited as reasons for belief. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, those who were fortunate enough to have a strong scientific education were the least likely to develop any religious beliefs. No wonder over 90% of National Academy of Sciences members profess no religious beliefs.

There is really nothing surprising about a study like this. I think we all suspected these results intuitively, anyway. I also think that paranoid Christians also know this, which is why they constantly pick fights (and lose) over science issues. How else does one account for people like Kevin Wirth, or the Discovery Institute? They know that a well-educated public will choose to discard the ancient fables and superstitions they’ve successfully foisted upon us for milllennia. If the American public were anywhere close to being scientifically literate, they’d be out of business.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:54:10 +0000

Jason, don’t most fundies do that anyway? I mean it’s either that or jesus had a separate book just for the fundies, I doubt that though.

By: Jason Failes

Jason Failes — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:06:21 +0000

God commands us very simply: Love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind.

Where? He is making up his own scripture here, I think.

a Book which is responsible for all of Western Civilization…

The stupid here burns, and the goggles, they do nothing. Literacy, philosophy, democracy, indoor plumbing, free speech, women’s rights, and slave reform all have their origins pre-Christianity….and Christianity opposed most of these things! (except indoor plumbing, I suppose) By “responsible for all of western Civilization” did he mean “the best parts of western civilization survived despite being continuously attacked by Christianity?”

By: vjack

vjack — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:38:15 +0000

Of course, there are plenty of smart Christians. However, the data suggest that as the average intelligence of a group increases, the average religious belief of that group decreases. Makes perfect sense to me.

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:23:46 +0000

If some of the great minds of the past didn’t have religious blinders on, they could have thought outside the religious box and come up with bigger ideas.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:36:46 +0000

You know I don’t think you get stupider with religion, well with the rational normal form of “this list of things we don’t know yet I am going to attribute to a divine force, and wait for science to catch up” and you know there are benefits to belief, so I think that comment that some of the most intellectual people who were Christian could have possibly done better with out it. However, I agree with all the rest of the article.