Warning: High IQ May Make You An Atheist

From The Times



Table

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It's people like this that give real scientists (and anti-theists) fits, although this editor does not necessarily dispute his conclusion.

Belief in God is much lower among academics than among the general population because scholars have higher IQs, a controversial academic claimed this week.

In a forthcoming paper for the journal Intelligence, Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, will argue that there is a strong correlation between high IQ and lack of religious belief and that average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 countries.

A survey of fellows of the Royal Society found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God at a time when a poll reported that 68.5 per cent of the general UK population were believers.

Andy Wells, senior lecturer in psychology at the London School of Economics, said the existence of a correlation between IQ and religiosity did not mean there was a causal relationship between the two.

Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at the University of Leeds, said that Professor Lynn's arguments appeared to have "a slight tinge of intellectual elitism and Western cultural imperialism as well as an antireligious sentiment".

What's that saying about atheists and really great sex?

Obviously, from my prior posts, I am both an atheist and an antitheist.

That said, I think there are a couple of counterpoints that need to be made by the self-honest among us.

1) Like the GDP, which is an awful indicator, IQ is an awful indicator. In both cases, they are usually the only number available, so get quoted a lot. However, we should take both numbers with a huge grain of salt. IQ measures something. And, that something is a good indicator of potential success in life and school and business. However, we lack a scientific definition of intelligence and a real way to measure it.

2) Education may really be the stronger correlation in this than IQ. I don't know. However, even at the very highest levels, the Royal Society and the NAS, we must remember that the number of atheists gets very high but does not reach 100%. So, some highly intelligent (whatever that means) and educated people actually do believe in a deity, and probably some even believe in a personal god.

I have no idea how people performing science on a daily basis, and obviously more than competently, can believe such drivel. I'll just say that they are smarter than me and likely better educated as well and there are a small number of individuals in that crowd that believe in god.

I can imagine the conversations like this:

OK, I'm about to perform a really important experiment for which I need perfectly objective data. Nobody pray while I'm doing this! I don't want the laws of physics to be temporarily suspended during my experiment.

I would also note that where I've read about this before, some sciences cause higher degrees of atheism than others. On the list of higher percentages of atheists are, at least, physicists, biologists, astronomers/astrophysicists, and interestingly, psychologists/psychiatrists. The last pretty much define religion as a delusion, I think. I imagine one could be a religious chemist. There's not much in ordinary chemistry to contradict religion. I'm not sure if this is indeed a field with a slightly higher degree of religiosity or not. I'm just hypothesizing on that one.

If some deity did design the universe, I can only imagine that It:

• Is not very good or is a child
• Is about to be severely punished for making a mess
• Has a terrible sense of humor

Or it's just all a really cool accident resulting from quantum fluctuations in a multiverse.

If it was "designed", it was done by a governmental committee.  No doubt about it.

Did anyone "get" the picture for the article?

No but then again, I wasn't curious (sorry about that, curious, I couldn't resist!).

By the way curious, if the universe was 'designed' by a government committee, why doesn't it look like an elephant?

Then again, perhaps it does.

Thie picture was a dig at Mensa, the "High IQ" club (or whatever it is).  The constellation (outlined in the picture) is in the southern hemisphere on a star chart and not visible to Mensa members north of the equator.  Double pun.  Yeah, I know, really bad.

Mensa in Latin is "Table."

When is the last time you had a nice, relaxing day - fishing or something? Perhaps we could interest you in this nice, white coat with these wrap-around arms that attach in the front? You liked that coat, didn't you?

I don't need a coat, it's 99F outside.  The skies were supremely clear last night and atmospheric turbulence was at a minimum, so I got a lot of work d....  Oh, now I get it.  They only let me out on days ending in "Y."