Religious people are less intelligent ...apparently.

[ducati]

In your own words ducati, it wasn't that long ago you were calling someone a tosser, well everybody has the freedom and right to be a tosser but you really shouldn't abuse the privilege.

I'm a tosser because I think you are an idiot? Ho hum

[Alrock]

OK I know the lifeforms on Earth evolved over time.
But who would tell someone on their deathbed there isnt a heaven?
If its their only thing to look forward to, is, their next life after they gasp their last....as a comfort to them and their loved ones.
Even very intelligent people like to think there is something after death....when faced by the grim reaper waiting in the wings with very little sand left in their timer and no chance of the timer getting flipped over.
And by that I dont just mean a box buried or ashes scattered...I mean souls going to heaven or reincarnation etc whatever their religion dictates...

Just because something may be comforting doesn't make it true....

If I found comfort in the thought that the world was flat (as many once did) does that mean that the world is actually flat?

[Rheghead]

OK I know the lifeforms on Earth evolved over time.
But who would tell someone on their deathbed there isnt a heaven?
If its their only thing to look forward to, is, their next life after they gasp their last....as a comfort to them and their loved ones.
Even very intelligent people like to think there is something after death....when faced by the grim reaper waiting in the wings with very little sand left in their timer and no chance of the timer getting flipped over.
And by that I dont just mean a box buried or ashes scattered...I mean souls going to heaven or reincarnation etc whatever their religion dictates...

I think that anyone who has no regrets about the choices that they have made and have lived life to their idea of a full life will accept death when it comes. Even in the case when a young person like a child, a soldier or whatever. When the unfortunate end comes, if they think that their life has had a purpose to yourself or meant something to someone else, and I'm talking love here, then they will have no need to exist in a supernatural afterlife.

I think anyone who tries to push their religious views on to someone who is on their deathbed who does have regrets is trying to exploit a very vulnerable person for the purpose of pushing their own agenda.

But I live and let live, it is their choice afterall.

[Dadie]

no...I just wondered with all the anti religion debate going on if any of you would take a step back and placate your gran...(any relative..friend... etc )that yes there is a life after death if it would make them easier in their passing even if its not in your own belief.
Its not your beliefs im questioning ...its, if you have enough respect to take note of their beliefs...and not ram down their throats there is no life after death.
The same as if you were dying and didnt believe in an afterlife you wouldnt want to know and wouldnt be placated by it...and wouldnt want to be brainwashed into it.....your friends/relatives would respect your beliefs (or lack of) and treat your last moments as you wish.

[squidge]

I was once dying - lying in an intensive care bed in the small hours of the morning listening to two doctors talking about how long it was before I had heart failure. I was 36, I was loved, I loved too,I knew my life had had a purpose but I wasnt ready to go. I couldnt move and I could hardly speak but I prayed, in my head over and over and over again. I just prayed, and I didnt have and dont have a strong faith but I needed to pray. I prayed all night and over and over again and I prayed that if He did decide I was dying that he would let me into heaven wherever and whatever it is. I dont care if that makes people think I was stupid, or thick or naive. I dont care if im smarter than the average christian or stupider than the average atheist. It helped. It helped me get through a dreadful time and it helped me DO something other than just lie there and wait and see if I was going to die. What is so terrible about that, what is so stupid about that? We all sometimes need something surely. Sometimes, in the dark, in the face of something terrible there is only half remembered faith from childhood which can help..... where is the stupidity in that?

[maverick]

I'm a tosser because I think you are an idiot? Ho hum

whatever dude.

[maverick]

I was once dying - lying in an intensive care bed in the small hours of the morning listening to two doctors talking about how long it was before I had heart failure. I was 36, I was loved, I loved too,I knew my life had had a purpose but I wasnt ready to go. I couldnt move and I could hardly speak but I prayed, in my head over and over and over again. I just prayed, and I didnt have and dont have a strong faith but I needed to pray. I prayed all night and over and over again and I prayed that if He did decide I was dying that he would let me into heaven wherever and whatever it is. I dont care if that makes people think I was stupid, or thick or naive. I dont care if im smarter than the average christian or stupider than the average atheist. It helped. It helped me get through a dreadful time and it helped me DO something other than just lie there and wait and see if I was going to die. What is so terrible about that, what is so stupid about that? We all sometimes need something surely. Sometimes, in the dark, in the face of something terrible there is only half remembered faith from childhood which can help..... where is the stupidity in that?

Well Squidge, I'm glad to see that you got through your ordeal. The researchers at the University of Rochester, where this study was compiled have managed to tell us that some people are just not as bright as others, are they? I wonder if God values them any less? Or should we? I think the purpose of this thread was to exalt atheism at the expense of theism to the point of offence. The offensive thing is a society exalting "intelligence" to the denigration of those who have a little less of it. A decent culture wouldn't even accept this study. It takes a sick society to place a higher value on people, or think they should be emulated, merely on the basis of their brain power. I often wonder how many people stop to consider that highly intelligent people can often be wrong ( not to mention immoral, arrogant and hateful etc). If I keep a Scriptural perspective on the world's measure of "intelligence", studies like the one which started this thread, don't merit more than a shrug, and maybe a comment. " It looks like it fits with 1Corinthians, which is what God has said all along.

[gaza]

OK I know the lifeforms on Earth evolved over time.
But who would tell someone on their deathbed there isnt a heaven?
If its their only thing to look forward to, is, their next life after they gasp their last....as a comfort to them and their loved ones.
Even very intelligent people like to think there is something after death....when faced by the grim reaper waiting in the wings with very little sand left in their timer and no chance of the timer getting flipped over.
And by that I dont just mean a box buried or ashes scattered...I mean souls going to heaven or reincarnation etc whatever their religion dictates...

Heaven ! Hell ! the afterlife ! Call it what you want but there is a place of comfort, a place where your family, friends, people you respect and people you liked who have already past on, are, you will be with them again wherever and however it is, because they are already there, but i doubt if you will meet one of the many hundreds of GODs that there are supposed to be. Or at least if I do, by the time i'll have finished with him he'll wish he wasn't a GOD, the lying, cheating, sadistic, murdering, creator of evil people and --- i could go on and on

[cptdodger]

no...I just wondered with all the anti religion debate going on if any of you would take a step back and placate your gran...(any relative..friend... etc )that yes there is a life after death if it would make them easier in their passing even if its not in your own belief.
Its not your beliefs im questioning ...its, if you have enough respect to take note of their beliefs...and not ram down their throats there is no life after death.
The same as if you were dying and didnt believe in an afterlife you wouldnt want to know and wouldnt be placated by it...and wouldnt want to be brainwashed into it.....your friends/relatives would respect your beliefs (or lack of) and treat your last moments as you wish.

In the same respect Dadie, if I suddenly told a member of my family they were going to heaven, or there is life after death and so on, they would know for a fact I was lying to them. My friends and family know my beliefs, or as you point out - lack of, so would not expect to hear that from me, at all.

[theone]

I was once dying - lying in an intensive care bed in the small hours of the morning listening to two doctors talking about how long it was before I had heart failure. I was 36, I was loved, I loved too,I knew my life had had a purpose but I wasnt ready to go. I couldnt move and I could hardly speak but I prayed, in my head over and over and over again. I just prayed, and I didnt have and dont have a strong faith but I needed to pray. I prayed all night and over and over again and I prayed that if He did decide I was dying that he would let me into heaven wherever and whatever it is. I dont care if that makes people think I was stupid, or thick or naive. I dont care if im smarter than the average christian or stupider than the average atheist. It helped. It helped me get through a dreadful time and it helped me DO something other than just lie there and wait and see if I was going to die. What is so terrible about that, what is so stupid about that? We all sometimes need something surely. Sometimes, in the dark, in the face of something terrible there is only half remembered faith from childhood which can help..... where is the stupidity in that?

I know you're not stupid, and I wonder if I was in that situation I wouldn't do the same, but your experience, and what I may experience and might get through, is not an excuse for the irrational time, money, respect etc that religion is granted in our society.

Religion should have no more power/influence/respect than political beliefs. It's a choice.

[squidge]

I know you're not stupid, and I wonder if I was in that situation I wouldn't do the same, but your experience, and what I may experience and might get through, is not an excuse for the irrational time, money, respect etc that religion is granted in our society.

Religion should have no more power/influence/respect than political beliefs. It's a choice.

I agree with you

[secrets in symmetry]

The headline on the article confuses the conclusion of the study. It did not show that religious people are necessarily less intelligent, it showed that intelligent people are less likely to be religious.

There's a big difference.

Indeed - it's obviously a case of strongly overlapping distributions and all that....

I've printed the paper, but I haven't read it yet.

[secrets in symmetry]

I still haven't read this paper. I found it under a pile of other papers on my desk at work today. I still plan to read it and report back in a calm scientific manner.

[canuck]

Bring on the IQ test. I'll take it! And that's me talking before my morning coffee.

But please don't tar me with the brush of insensativity to other's faith or non-faith.

[canuck]

I just came across this link. It might make sense of this discussion:

http://www.upworthy.com/a-debate-bet...prising-result

C

[secrets in symmetry]

I just came across this link. It might make sense of this discussion:

http://www.upworthy.com/a-debate-bet...prising-result

C

I think this would be better on the thread about the evangelists' bus.

I agree that God wouldn't approve of many of his fan clubs!

[gaza]

I was once dying - lying in an intensive care bed in the small hours of the morning listening to two doctors talking about how long it was before I had heart failure. I was 36, I was loved, I loved too,I knew my life had had a purpose but I wasnt ready to go. I couldnt move and I could hardly speak but I prayed, in my head over and over and over again. I just prayed, and I didnt have and dont have a strong faith but I needed to pray. I prayed all night and over and over again and I prayed that if He did decide I was dying that he would let me into heaven wherever and whatever it is. I dont care if that makes people think I was stupid, or thick or naive. I dont care if im smarter than the average christian or stupider than the average atheist. It helped. It helped me get through a dreadful time and it helped me DO something other than just lie there and wait and see if I was going to die. What is so terrible about that, what is so stupid about that? We all sometimes need something surely. Sometimes, in the dark, in the face of something terrible there is only half remembered faith from childhood which can help..... where is the stupidity in that?

Did the thought not occur to you......... Why is GOD making me suffer like this, Why is GOD letting me hear the doctors debating how long i have to live, Why won't GOD let me move, Why won't GOD let me speak, Why did GOD do this to me, Why is GOD putting my loved ones through this, Seems to me this GOD person is not very nice.

[secrets in symmetry]

Having redressed the balance towards the devout on the other thread, I think I need to give the atheists a hand after that little embarrassment....