Starman wrote:
KenRU wrote:
Welcome to the forum, Starman.
The authors estimated that the average difference in IQ points between believers and nonbelievers ranged from 6.2 for non-college samples to 7.8 for college samples. This difference is roughly half a standard deviation in size, so this represents a reasonably substantial effect."[/i]
All the best,
Well said, sir. Yours is one of the finer posts I have read here, and I have read quite a few already.
Thank you for the kind words, though having been posting here for a little while now, I find it only fair to say that I consider myself barely able to hold a candle to some of the fine debaters here on this forum (on both sides of the aisle).
Point taken. I would contend that neither you nor I could differentiate between individuals with a 7.8 much less a 6.2 point difference.
Perhaps, but the point I was making doesnt just end with a few IQ points (discernible or not). The correlation also extends to higher education. So, in essence, those that know the most about how the world really works, tend to have less religiosity. To me, that speaks volumes.
More to the point is the indisputable fact that intellectualism does not make one right.
It would make them more than likely to be right (those with a higher IQ and more education). Otherwise, we have radically different opinions on what it means to be intelligent.
Overlooked is the fact that in and of itself, intellect is not a positive attribute, for it can, and is all too often, used for evil, unsavory, or wrong purposes, however you wish to characterize them. The Unabomber is a perfect example.
Sorry, I will respectfully disagree. The character of a person determines their actions (sense of right and wrong, their moral compass, so to speak). If your analogy is that intelligence is like a gun, it can be used for good or evil, I cant disagree.
But not everyone wants to own a gun.
But most everyone would like to be more intelligent.
You and I may disagree honestly on this point or that, but I have yet to see any reasonable explanation by any atheist for an alternative to an Intelligent Creator.
Fair enough, but, on the flip side of that coin, I have yet to hear a reasonable argument for the existence of an intelligent creator. Perhaps, we will be able to see each others point of view, and understand the other argument better?
Many information theorists have arrived at this same conclusion after studying DNA.
And many more determined the opposite conclusion.
Its stored information is more alien to us than Sanskrit was before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
Perhaps. But admitting one doesnt know is more intellectually honest than asserting something that cannot be known.
All the best,