God makes you stupid, researchers claim

[Synnical]

That's the actual headline from The Register.

:silly:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/god_boffins/

Intelligence begot atheism
By Chris Williams
Published Thursday 12th June 2008 11:06 GMT


A psychology researcher has controversially claimed that stupidity is causally linked to how likely people are to believe in God.

University of Ulster professor Richard Lynn will draw the conclusion in new research due to be published in the journal Intelligence, the Times Higher Education Supplement reports.

Lynn and his two co-authors argue that average IQ is an excellent predictor of what proportion of the population are true believers, across 137 countries. They also cite surveys of the US Academy of Sciences and UK Royal Academy showing single-digit rates of religious belief among academics.

That professional skeptics don't believe in a creator is perhaps not all that surprising. Lynn argues, however, that it is their intelligence that directly gives rise to the boffinated classes' non-God-bothering tendencies. He said: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population."

Lynn pointed out that most children do believe in God, but as their intelligence develops they tend to have doubts or reject religion. Similarly, as average IQ in Western societies increased through the 20th century, so did rates of atheism, he said.

The researchers' claims of a direct causal link have drawn criticism from others in intelligence research, who argue their conclusions are too simplistic. London Metropolitan University's Dr David Hardman said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt intuitions."

Next week: exclusive Reg research reveals the link between obesity and love of cake. ®

[and-justice-for-all]

1. Religion does teach one to be naive and simple minded..

were as Science encourages observation and verification based on empirical evidence.

If there be ghost, then there must be evidence to support the claim, without evidence there is no support for the existence of ghost. We, nonbelievers, require the ones making such claims to provide evidence to support it. If no evidence exist, we will conclude that such a thing as ghost, does not exist either.

Like Atoms, you may not be able to see them; as ghost would be. But we can measure them and detect them with instrumentation.

We nonbelievers are not the gullible type and rarely fall into naivety. Believers would in fact have much lower IQs, because they dismiss all the empirical evidence that is put right in their faces. They prefer to live in denial of reality and just how things really work. They are quicker to believe in magic, curses and talking burning bushes before acknowledging the hard evidence to the contrary.

[moggie]

2. I'm more interested in the science correlation

Without reading the original paper, it's hard to know what to make of this. Did they administer actual intelligence tests, or did they just say "IQ is going up while religious belief is declining, also universities are full of atheists, QED"? If it's the latter, then how did they eliminate non-IQ factors?

This is the bit I like:

The paper - which was co-written with John Harvey, who does not report a university affiliation, and Helmuth Nyborg, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark - cites studies including a 1990s survey that found that only 7 per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God. 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.

Since Lynn's focus is IQ, his take on this appears to be "scientists are smart, so they don't believe in God". Perhaps... but I think it's more relevant that scientists are taught to critically examine ideas, evaluate evidence, watch out for cognitive bias etc. Although professional scientists may tend to be more intelligent that the general population, this is a way of thinking which does not require high intelligence, and if schools did a better job of teaching this mindset, then rates of religious belief would probably decline accordingly, even among people who aren't part of the "intellectual elite".

On the other hand, any research which shows that Americans are dumber than Europeans has a certain attraction! :evilgrin:

On edit: right after I posted this, a colleague forwarded me a message he received from a senior professor which... well, for privacy reasons I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say it confirms something I've long known from working in higher education: professors may be highly intelligent, but that doesn't stop them being dumb as rocks! Ask anyone who has worked in university IT...

[ozone_man]

9. I think you're correct.

The original study about NAS scientists correlated nonbelief with science level not intelligence. The two are related, but I think it's the critical thinking that comes with achievement in science and engineering that lead to lower religiosity. Either way, believers take great offense at the idea. ;)

The idea of a personal god was developed long before the age of reason, and way before the Theory of Evolution. It may have been a plausible idea 2,000 years ago, but in the modern era is absurd, especially the idea that three is one and one is three.

[pink-o]

3. And you notice this is from Europe, not the USA!

I don't know if I'd classify believers as less intelligent--even the smartest person can get locked into a mindset that limits them. I just classify Atheists and Agnostics as "critical thinkers". And to be a critical thinker, your mind must be unfettered by doctrine.

Because the absolute worst thing about church and religion is that it kills one's curiosity. It waves a Big Book at you, tells you that book has all the answers and you never need to strain your brain again. Let us do the thinking for you, just kick back and trust us to know what's best for you. That's a death sentence for progressive thought. No matter how humans got here, our brains weren't meant to coast along and be passive.

As kids, we're all suceptible to brainwashing, and as we get older, some people question the tenets, not content to pay lip-service to stuff they learned in kindergarten. But others just never go there--does that make them less intelligent, or just less curious and not ready to evolve?

And BTW, I'm talking about the rational church-goers, of course--the crazy, wild-eyed, snake-handling, tongue-speaking fundie loonie fanatics are as stupid as they come. I'm sure the IQ's there don't go above room temperature!

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Or: Stupidity Makes You Religious

The snip you posted sounds more like it's saying that duller people tend to believe.

Just splitting hairs, either way.

[moggie]

5. Reminds me of that John Stuart Mill quote

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative."

[TZ]

6. I hate this bullshit

Any study that links intelligence with a certain type of behavior usually has an AGENDA behind it.
Intelligence can be measured in different ways besides traditional IQ tests (which can be very flawed and biased) in and among themselves.
I find it hard to believe somebody didn't expect to find this conclusion and thus it was biased from the start.
This smacks of "The Bell Curve" if you ask me.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Are you making a blanket statement that IQ does not correlate with anything?

[TZ]

8. No.

However, most psychologists will tell you that IQ tests are rather limited in what they can tell you. Its a general guideline.
Can it tell you some things? Yes. IE--people who work in the sciences tend to have higher IQ's.
Remember though correlation is not causation as well. So even if there is *some* correlation between religious beliefs and intelligence that really doesn't PROVE anything.
Its true that certain ethnic groups tend to score lower on IQ tests. Does that mean that they are less intelligent. Nope.
Do you think IQ is an indication of artistic talent? Imagination? Writing ability? Social Skills? Musical ability?
Do you see what I mean about too many variables here? Seriously. I cringe when I see an IQ correlates with this n that study.
They aren't helpful or usable. Ask any psychologist how much disagreement on what IQ tests mean and measure.
BTW, I believe there is strong correlation between religious belief and UPBRINGING. So cultural influences CANNOT be dismissed either in belief.
This study smacks of an elitist "atheists are superior" attitude that we DON'T need.

[enki23]

10. the real problem here is that such a correlation could mean something entirely different

it would be conceivable that (for instance)... being around high IQ religious people tends to make average and lower IQ people less likely to be religious. in other words, maybe high IQ evangelists actually have the opposite of their intended effect. why not? it seems to hold true for US politics.
;)

or maybe there's no problem at all.