Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations

mangans.blogspot.com

14 points·byrneseyeview··8 comments

The link in the article to the actual paper appears to be broken, but there seems to be a copy uploaded here as well: http://files.meetup.com/411954/Intelligence.pdf

Skimming the article, seems to be a lot of discussion of statistical correlation and some not very persuasive speculation on causal relationships.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/stop_patting_your...

"Good grief. This ridiculous study is making the rounds of the atheist community, with its claim that liberals and atheists are smarter than conservatives and religious people. Look at the numbers!"

I am curious about the validity of the measurements, but the difference is nearly half a standard deviation. The rest of the argument is a little odd:

1) He doesn't buy the idea that IQ is a measurement with predictive value, which is why he doesn't think that IQ... has predictive value when guessing religious affiliation.

2) He doesn't like the author of the study.

So, just to be clear, the blog post you linked is about reasons it is not worth your time to investigate whether or not this is true, not reasons to think it's not true.

I wonder how this correlates in non-western countries?

I'm a member of a few skeptical mailinglists. This subject suddenly seems a hot topic there, on both american and european lists.

Why is this religious crap polluting HN? I don't want to see it, stop posting it please. kthnxbai

"Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise." 1 Corinthians 3:18

this was paul who said that, just for you folk who will think it was jesus. but still....

I find agnostics to be more intelligent, on average.

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