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Abraham Lincoln is an example, another modern example is Jordan Peterson, both who you can’t deny are exceedingly bright.
Since belief in god (or a god) is view as a lack intelligence, why do we have so many smart people believing in god, mostly Christian? What provokes then to believe in a higher being, predominately a the Christian God?
Firstly, I don't see what religion has to do with intelligence. You can't confirm whether a god exists or not, so why do you think believing in one is dumb? I say this as someone who isn't religious btw.
Secondly, Jordan Peterson isn't exceedingly bright. He just mixes basic self-help ideas like "clean your room" with batshit insane ramblings about how everyone he doesn't like is a Marxist or whatever.
He's just the L. Ron Hubbard of today.
I completely agree with you. It sucks that it's the perception that those who belive in God must also be anti science.
On average, atheists have higher IQs than religious people.
There have been many studies about this. For example, http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/The-Relation-Between-Intelligence-and-Religiosity-A-Meta-Analysis-and-Some-Proposed-Explanations.pdf
Religion has a lot to do with intelligence because some make no sense. Its a theory about the past and how probable it is reflects the state of mind of the person. If I say I think the earth was created a previous incarnation of jon cena, people would say I was dumb, or at least dumber than they thought before for thinking that.
Probably similar to the reason you believe a self-help author is "highly intelligent" - indoctrination and/or need for affiliation. Some find comfort in believing outside forces guide their lives.
They don't like not knowing. This has always baffles me to be honest. But we also need to define intteligence. Because intelligence on the objective is different than specilative intelligence. So like is you take Sigmund freud and a rocket scientist, both intelligent. But in terms of what they actually know, its very different in terms of fact verses speculation. Also keep in mind that a guy like Abe lincoln, was the man at the helm of a christian founded nation, so he could have just been a Christian to appeal to the majority and relate to his nation.
because even they don't know the answer, it scares them so they turn to religion. It's been like that ever since men created god. They don't know where it comes from, then it must be magic, for example rain, fire, night, day etc.
As an agnostic and as a person who is determined to have a higher than average intelligence I find that your lack of perspective to be repulsive. To whom are you to assume that those who belive in God are some how faulted in thier own beliefs?
God can not be proven nor disproven and hoping for God to exsist is a hell of a lot more comforting than when you die it's just over. If believing in God is how you get over your nihilistic thoughts of what come after.
Also what's with the hatred of christianity?! Honestly christianity overall has done more good than bad in the world. Christianity is out of its teenage years of crusades and the like so lighten up. Islam has more or less stayed the same for the last 2000 years killing each other like how the protestants and Catholics did in the 16th century.
Chris Langan my friend. Also, read Søren Kierkegaard or just like watch a video on him idc
Well Abraham Lincoln was around a long time ago, there was still a lot that wasn't known about the origin of the Earth and the universe and stuff back then. Evolution was only discovered not too long before his death. Nowadays it's much less common.
I don't think religion has anything to do with intelligence. People get confused because they see religion as a rejection of modern science, and therefore anyone who believes in it must be stupid. That's not always the case.
Religion and science should have no bearing on each other. Religion is faith and spirituality. Wtf does that have to do with science or your IQ level?
For example - we have overwhelming evidence that the big bang theory is correct. The more scientists look into this, the more the evidence piles up. I see no logical reason why that disproves the existence of any god. It is irrelevant. No matter how far back we go, no matter how concrete the evidence is, it still is never going to touch on anything spiritual. So why do people try to make that link? I have even heard religious folk say that the Big Bang Theory supports their beliefs, because it shows us the moment where the big guy upstairs pushed the button, so to speak.
I'm not religious myself and have worked in the scientific sector for most of my career, but I find it irritating the amount of scientists I have come across who throw theories of the universe around as some sort of evidence that there is no God. Equally I've met religious folk who treat the scientific community as their enemy, as if their specific aim is to undermine religion. To me it's as disconnected as someone telling me that they don't like bananas, and therefore anyone who wears a purple hat on a Tuesday is stupid. No meaningful connection whatsoever - only what we ascribe to it based on our emotional/spiritual beliefs that can never, ever be proven or disproven. Your intelligence level doesn't come into it, it's simply about the experiences you've had and your own musings on the big unanswerable questions.
On the big bang not disproving god, my perception from being amongst and raised by christians is that it does contradict. God formed the earth spontaneously and placed life specifically on earth which would not result from the big bang. So the idea of one the first day he did this, second day this ect doesn't line up with one bang and everything there. The bible details a gradual process.
You see, the Bible doesn't necesarily detail a gradual process. The Bible does not say how much time passes in between each action God took in the creation. Also, the days aren't necesarily human daysof the length we think of days as being. The days could be lengthened or shortened as much as needed. I have a quote to support this.
2 Peter 3:8 King James Version
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
This is true, but you don't need to believe every word of the Bible to be considered religious. In the post it only mentions belief in God, there is no mention of having to be a creationist or believe every word of the Bible. The two aren't synonymous.
You have a point I guess. Some people believe the bits and pieces of the bible they like which I think is fucking retarded, but people do do it. I have literally talked to people who agree that sex begore marriage and gay sex aren't immoral, but then they pound the rest of the bible into my face as perfect gospel. I probably have said my view on this before, but I think that if you disagree with anything at all in the bible, than the source which is god is not who he says he is, which is perfect. And this to anyone sensible would at least throw the rest of the bible and Christianity as a whole into question. To sum things up, there are people like that, they are just being retarded. In my opinion of course!
But the Bible and a belief in a god don't necessarily have to be linked. Humans have always believed in gods of some form, as far as we know.
Also I think even in the case of Christianity - where you do sort of need to go off the Bible otherwise how are you a Christian - there can be plenty of wiggle room. For example the more intelligent Christians I know do believe that Jesus was the son of God, but they recognise that the Bible has been translated over and over again through multiple languages and over 2 thousand years, and so taking every minute detail literally isn't necessarily following the word of God. Also god didn't write the Bible - people did. It's random people's accounts of what happened.
I guess ultimatey it depends what sort of Christian you are. I completely agree with you though that if you're the sort of Christian who believes in every single word of the Bible, especially the Creationist aspects, then this brings up a lot of questions about your intelligence because you are willfully ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence in many areas. I guess my point was just that a belief in God doesn't need to be like that.
Isn't it funny how neither of us believes any of this stuff but we both always end up talking about it at length on here lol.
As far as the idea of god not being linked with the bible, your right, however to my knowledge those are different gods. A muslim and a Christian aren't thinking of the same god. But the bible has such widespread credibility compared to other religious texts that is the most commonly used.
I haven't met any christians who think the bible was altered in translation or misrepresented by fallible human sources. All that I personally knew thought that 'gods hand' was guiding the hand of the writers and translaters of the bible so god got the exact message tnrough that he wanted.
Back on the actual topic, I do think that being a Christian makes me think less of someone's intelligence than if that same person were to be atheist. But if like you say, someone believes in only part of the bible but not others, that does not improve my opinion of their intelligence. There are people like that but I don't think their much more intelligent if at all. And also if you see my original comment on this post you can see where else I think there is nuances to this question.
I only talk about religion on here now that I'm at college its kinda funny.