Belief in God is associated with lower scores on IQ tests

[nobspeople]

Articles are from about 2010-2018:
“It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence,” note Richard Daws and Adam Hampshire at Imperial College London, in a new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology.
"Daws and Hampshire surveyed more than 63,000 people online, and had them complete a 30-minute set of 12 cognitive tasks that measured planning, reasoning, attention and working memory. The participants also indicated whether they were religious, agnostic or atheist. As predicted, the atheists performed better overall than the religious participants, even after controlling for demographic factors like age and education. Agnostics tended to place between atheists and believers on all tasks. "

The article makes a case for logic and reasoning vs. intuition.
https://neurosciencenews.com/religion-a ... ence-8391/

This article also says "...the proportion of people with a religious belief is growing: by 2050, if current trends continue, people who say they are not religious will make up only 13 per cent of the global population."
https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/glo ... nity-exec/

So, if religious people are 'less intelligent' and if Christianity is 'growing', that means, without interruption of some type, humanity will decline in regards to intelligence.

In the USA, we have been seeing the ground work being laid for things like Creationism and ID being taught along side, or in place of, science for a while now.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4450533?seq=1
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/202 ... ols-teach/
https://www.theintell.com/article/20160 ... /301229829

Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

[1213]

...
Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

USA seems to have on going cultural revolution and the country is turning to communism. I think it is very stupid. There is lot of stupid things going on, like covid fascism, cancel culture, climate tyranny, idiotic wars… …if people are not already stupid, the regime and its propaganda outlets, like Facebook, twitter, CNN… seems to do everything to make everyone as stupid as possible. I don’t believe it has anything to do with God. More likely it is because people seem to have rejected God.

[Paul of Tarsus]

Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

Frankly, what I've seen posted on this board by both theists and atheists leads me to believe that if we are dumbing down, then we're not far from rock bottom. I hope it isn't true that the whole country is moving in that direction, and I really haven't noticed that people in general are getting dumber, this board notwithstanding. It may be that people aren't so much dumb or getting dumber but that they cling to ideas they find precious to them and that they are only so glad to jettison reason and evidence as well as intelligence to preserve their belief in those ideas. Both the religious and the irreligious tend to act that way.

[Paul of Tarsus]

I don’t believe it has anything to do with God. More likely it is because people seem to have rejected God.

Rejecting God can be supported by stupidity and sometimes is supported by stupidity if a person finds the idea of no God so appealing that it matters more to them than logic or knowledge. Of course, theists can experience stupidity if clinging to God matters more to them than logic or knowledge.

[Purple Knight]

So, if religious people are 'less intelligent' and if Christianity is 'growing', that means, without interruption of some type, humanity will decline in regards to intelligence.

Christianity is not necessarily growing. The proportion of people who have a religious belief is probably growing because Muslims reproduce more. This isn't a dig at Muslims but a compliment. They're more successful so they must be doing something right.

https://www.pewforum.org/essay/the-grow ... opulation/

This seems to be the trend where native religiosity is very low. I use Germany as an example because they were at one point the most atheist country (except China). No, I can't find the source but I remember reading it a decade or two ago.

“It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence,” note Richard Daws and Adam Hampshire at Imperial College London, in a new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology.

If what correlated with high intelligence was simply the tendency to turn away from the belief you were born into, what this quote says would seem to be true, but it wouldn't be. It would make it seem as though whichever belief was the utmost minority (which is atheism if I'm not mistaken) would get the most proportionate influx of geniuses. This is true even if the geniuses convert to other beliefs at the same rate as those beliefs occur in the general population. All that matters is that they're more likely to convert at all, so the belief the genius converts end up with is more likely to be the minority belief than the general population, because they disproportionately select something other than what they were born with.

If the population is 90% Christians, and geniuses are simply likely to convert no matter what they were born into, Billy the Genius who was raised by two atheists decides to convert to Christianity, and he does this simply because geniuses convert more. So atheism loses Billy but gains nine other atheists whose genius brains were simply blasé to the belief they were born into and converted out of boredom.

Did you control for this, Dawsy? Did you? I hope you did.

[Miles]

Articles are from about 2010-2018:
“It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence,” note Richard Daws and Adam Hampshire at Imperial College London, in a new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology.
"Daws and Hampshire surveyed more than 63,000 people online, and had them complete a 30-minute set of 12 cognitive tasks that measured planning, reasoning, attention and working memory. The participants also indicated whether they were religious, agnostic or atheist. As predicted, the atheists performed better overall than the religious participants, even after controlling for demographic factors like age and education. Agnostics tended to place between atheists and believers on all tasks. "

The article makes a case for logic and reasoning vs. intuition.
https://neurosciencenews.com/religion-a ... ence-8391/

This article also says "...the proportion of people with a religious belief is growing: by 2050, if current trends continue, people who say they are not religious will make up only 13 per cent of the global population."
https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/glo ... nity-exec/

So, if religious people are 'less intelligent' and if Christianity is 'growing', that means, without interruption of some type, humanity will decline in regards to intelligence.

Fortunately for the USA the trend is quite different. While the rest of the world is evidently growing less smart, as a whole the United Sates has been growing brighter.

....................................

In the USA, we have been seeing the ground work being laid for things like Creationism and ID being taught along side, or in place of, science for a while now.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4450533?seq=1
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/202 ... ols-teach/
https://www.theintell.com/article/20160 ... /301229829

Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

No worry, its just the carnival passing through.

.............................................

Thankfully we have the law on our side, which has kept this insidious claptrap out of our public school science classes.

.

[nobspeople]

...
Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

USA seems to have on going cultural revolution and the country is turning to communism. I think it is very stupid. There is lot of stupid things going on, like covid fascism, cancel culture, climate tyranny, idiotic wars… …if people are not already stupid, the regime and its propaganda outlets, like Facebook, twitter, CNN… seems to do everything to make everyone as stupid as possible. I don’t believe it has anything to do with God. More likely it is because people seem to have rejected God.

It's good that you excuse God of any culpability. That's sarcasm, of course.
God either doesn't care, is impotent, or this is his plan. It doesn't matter as it points to a worthless, imaginary deity that (IMO) has little to no justification to exist - even in the minds of those who wish it to be true.
Politics aside, people are lazy, which is one reason Christianity exists still. Lazy people want to be saved from life and 'live forever' having someone else do the dirty work (Jesus's sacrifice).
People don't want to work for their eternity.
When people believe conspiracies and religion over science, indeed, stupidity is running amok.

[nobspeople]

Are we seeing the dumbing down' of the USA more recently, has it been happening for decades now, or is it all hype, with little to nothing to support this idea?

Frankly, what I've seen posted on this board by both theists and atheists leads me to believe that if we are dumbing down, then we're not far from rock bottom. I hope it isn't true that the whole country is moving in that direction, and I really haven't noticed that people in general are getting dumber, this board notwithstanding. It may be that people aren't so much dumb or getting dumber but that they cling to ideas they find precious to them and that they are only so glad to jettison reason and evidence as well as intelligence to preserve their belief in those ideas. Both the religious and the irreligious tend to act that way.

Perception, I think, is key here. What some see as 'precious' others see as dumb (maybe even stupid).
I've always said stupidity doesn't discriminate.

Frankly, when people allow teaching of something so stupid as creationism and ID along side science as science, that's alarming and points to the dumbing down of society due to something they may see as 'precious'.

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

Belief in God is associated with low scores on IQ tests.

I just don't hold much truck with IQ tests. I never went to high school. Can't tell what the inside of one looks like. But in order to get in the Army I had to score higher than the average high school graduate on the Army test there. I got in. That dang sure ain't me bragging. That's just to say we all have stuff we find important to know, or just to wanna know, and other stuff we couldn't give us the first care for.

I know how to build buildings. I can ensure all codes and such are followed, keep folks safe, keep on schedule and even come in under budget if the PM didn't try to just under bid the heck out of it. But my old lady has to tell me if this shirt matches her dress, and how come it is, I should care.

And she does her the stupidest things. She'll drive twnety miles out of the way trying to save a nickel on a tank of gas.

But then she knows stuff real smart. Ask her how much a can of beanie weenies costs and she can tell ya, to the penny, at every store in the tri-county area. I can't even find the dang beanie weenies.

IQ tests only impress me when I can lord my score over the pretty thing. I don't do me no lording.


So regarding this OP, meh.

I've met me some of the absolute stupidest folks I ever met who could listen to an engine and tell ya which lifter it is aknocking, and how that lifter's parents never offered it no emotional support.

And I've met me some of the absolute smartest folks I ever met, who'll drive twenty miles out of the way trying to save a nickel on a tank of gas.

It's the conclusions we draw from the data we have where I find whatever the heck 'intelligence' might be. And when I hear such as "Ain't it fancy how God hates him everyone it is I do", well that's how I know I done met me someone more idioter'n me.

[nobspeople]

From the OP:

Belief in God is associated with low scores on IQ tests.

I just don't hold much truck with IQ tests. I never went to high school. Can't tell what the inside of one looks like. But in order to get in the Army I had to score higher than the average high school graduate on the Army test there. I got in. That dang sure ain't me bragging. That's just to say we all have stuff we find important to know, or just to wanna know, and other stuff we couldn't give us the first care for.

I know how to build buildings. I can ensure all codes and such are followed, keep folks safe, keep on schedule and even come in under budget if the PM didn't try to just under bid the heck out of it. But my old lady has to tell me if this shirt matches her dress, and how come it is, I should care.

And she does her the stupidest things. She'll drive twnety miles out of the way trying to save a nickel on a tank of gas.

But then she knows stuff real smart. Ask her how much a can of beanie weenies costs and she can tell ya, to the penny, at every store in the tri-county area. I can't even find the dang beanie weenies.

IQ tests only impress me when I can lord my score over the pretty thing. I don't do me no lording.


So regarding this OP, meh.

I've met me some of the absolute stupidest folks I ever met who could listen to an engine and tell ya which lifter it is aknocking, and how that lifter's parents never offered it no emotional support.

And I've met me some of the absolute smartest folks I ever met, who'll drive twenty miles out of the way trying to save a nickel on a tank of gas.

It's the conclusions we draw from the data we have where I find whatever the heck 'intelligence' might be. And when I hear such as "Ain't it fancy how God hates him everyone it is I do", well that's how I know I done met me someone more idioter'n me.

I agree IQ tests aren't the 'be all end all' when it comes to 'smarts'. But they're a good barometer and should be interpreted only as measuring someone's overall general intelligence.