So I am sure many of you have heard about the study that has been published which comes to the conclusion that liberals and atheists are more intelligent, on the whole, than their conservative, religious counterparts.

You can read about the study here and here. The second article goes more in depth and explains how typical IQ tests were not used (as they are not a true measure of intelligence.)

What do you guys think? This will probably end up being a nice arguing thread (the best kind!), but I have to agree with the study. After all, I am a liberal atheist and I am a genius ;D

It really depends on what you define as intelligent. I don't know about the relationship between conservatives and liberals, but when it comes to the religious vs. the non-religious, it's probably because the non-religious are more open to information and knowledge that the religious wouldn't readily accept due to their religion.

Some of the more hardcore religious are happy with the information about their life given to them by the Bible, and there's nothing wrong with that if it isn't interfering with their day-to-day life. The non-religious find it more satisfying to seek answers.

It also doesn't help that American conservatives tend to lean to the religious side, and use their religion to further politicize their social values. Theoretically, of course.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Field of science and science daily are both purely drivel, the journalism in both greatly contradicts the actual study. If you read the study (you have to pay for it, or some of us are able to view it with university passwords) you will see that the study and these two pieces of press are completely different, not only that the actual study is of poor quality.

Well that was just the first article that pops up on Google. It has been widely reported in many places, but of course I can't presume you won't call those 'drivel' as well.

Do you ever get bored being constantly negative?

A newscientist article would be slightly better, but it still means nothing without the actual research, just using the views of the press is a bit like only reading film reviews and never actually seeing them, you are getting a biased view point.

She's right though. It doesn't sound like a good enough quality of study to actually be considered real evidence of anything. :P

so because she gave her opinion and pointed something out to you she is being negative? Just curious to the logic behind that...

No; she's always negative, that's why I got pissy.

Also, "intelligence" is subjective. You can't have a scientific study of "intelligence" because there's nothing credible to measure intelligence.

But let's be honest, it's pretty easy to tell if people are stupid or smart.

While that's true, that could be a number of different reasons that has nothing to do with their intelligence level, if it even exists. I don't know where these statistics are coming from, but they can't be from any kind of credible measurement. Apparent "stupidity" could come from someone's mood, a Freudian slip, religious beliefs (which has been shown to cloud logical judgment in some people), or even a simple, unintentional skip in logic.

I ain't atheist. xD I am Catholic. But like, not the strictest Catholic around. Like, I prefer to balance how I was taught and raised (as a Catholic) with my own experiences and how I see the world. In other words, I don't blindly go around believing everything and taking everything in the Bible as literal truth, nor do I attend church every Sunday. Which probably makes me an incredibly bad Catholic by fundie standards, although I'd like to think that God would want His human creations to exercise some form of discretion and smarts when trying to grapple with a text first written over 2,000 years ago and subject to MUCH modification and interpretation since then.

So what I'm trying to say is that I agree with what Chris said about the more fundie among us simply willing to believe and and not exploring additional possibilities (and understanding that exploring another possibility does not equate to abandoning your original one), and the non-religious being more open to information, and so on.

And people, you must remember that the difference in IQ between the two religious extremes, according to the graph in the second link, is only 8 points, which is sizeable (and obviously significant, hence publishable) but really not that large. And many of us fall in between those religious categories (I would call myself 'slightly religious').

I also love that sexually exclusive men are more intelligent (according to the study). Hells yeah. xD

I just wanted to say that I love this thread. xD Even though I'm probably just writing random pointless philosophical crap that no one cares about, it's one of those topics that I love discussing at great length. ;D So thank you.

You are welcome! ;)

The most intelligent people I know (IRL) happen to be both Liberal and Atheist. But I'm not for a moment purporting that it reflects the world as a whole. I know some incredibly stupid atheists, for example!

I wish I could judge that relationship by my surroundings, but my life's experience has been entirely spent in a small, conservative, Protestant town. I'm the only atheist I know of in the top 20 in my class rankings. I am number one, though. Does that count? hahaha

The only atheists liberal I know is my cousin & he THINKS he is so canny. But in reality all he does is talk about what he is going to do instead of actually doing it. For example, he tells everyone he wants to be a chemist. But he dropped out of high school in the 10th grade & he is going to be 20 this year & hasn't even started college yet. So I really don't have anyone to compare the study to besides him. :P

But on the flip side, the most intelligent people I know are people of all religions, political views, gender, race, etc. So in my opinion intelligence isn't dominant in any one group of people because it comes in so many different forms.

Most of the intelligent people I know come from a variety of different backgrounds and religions as well.

I dunno. *shrug*

I'm a liberal Christian. So where does that put me?

Intellectual limbo, I suppose. :P

Hooray for statistical studies. Relevance? None.

Statistics mean nothing when applied to the individual.

Not to mention that most statistics are made up on the spot or tweaked so they back up what ones opinion is.

Agreed.