Interesting, but this is the guy who made a blanket statement about African black people being unintelligent. He's a racist who gets away with it because he's a professor.
I've heard this theory before. However,why fewer academics believe in God might not have to do with their intelligence, as the professor says, but with their education. The more education someone got, the more likely it is that he/she has heard logic,scientific explanations to phenomenons the person might otherwise have explained by religion. BTW, another study I read, said that the more unpredictable people's life is, the more religious they will become. That explains why people are much more religious in for instance Africa, than they are in Europe.
I'm an atheist and consider myself to be smarter than the average person, but also have friends who are believers that are equally intelligent. I would say on average that societies who recognize the value of scientific and philosophical inquiry are better organized than those that do not, but would be leery of accepting a conclusion that seems to confirm an easily held prejudice.
That's because overly intellectual people are off balance, and it is written, "the letter of the Word killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."
Funny, my mom tells me that. She contradicts herself. She urges me to go to school but not get too smart for my own good. I'm not as fervent in the Christian lifestyle as she is, but I do believe that there is something greater than mankind that can't be explained by our finite minds. Our universe (and ourselves for that matter) is just too complex for everything to operate on mere chance, in my opinion.
Yes, the vagaries of human existence does produce a longing for divine intervention in the minds of millions. People cry out all over the world for God's grace, but he seems to be playing a perpetual game of hide-and-seek. For those of you who live in modern western societies replete with such amenities as indoor plumbing, gas stoves and electricity, you owe it all to the ingenuity of people for whom religious explanations of the universe were not enough.
*complete gigglefit* I had no idea that there were people out there who thought an intellectual mind and capability of critical thinking was a bad thing. Oh, hilarious they are, those christians.. 10% of the science community in USA is religious. Rest of society the numbers are reversed. (Over here, 85% are agnostics or atheists, in society. No Idea about the research community.) Most of this research is done in the US since they are the western country where traditionalist and fundamentalist christian religions have the most power. And yeah, trust me, it scares the crap out of the rest of us, it's like a daytime sitcom gone wrong.. O___o Heres some cut'n'paste about religion and intelligence from a thread on google: " The site at ( http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Jesus/Intelligence & religion.htm ) is a good review of several studies of IQ and religiosity, paraphrased and summarized from Burnham Beckwith's article, "The Effect of Intelligence on Religious Faith," Free Inquiry, Spring 1986: It summarises as follows: "The consensus here is clear: more intelligent people tend not to believe in religion. And this observation is given added force when you consider that the above studies span a broad range of time, subjects and methodologies, and yet arrive at the same conclusion. "This is the result even when the researchers are Christian conservatives themselves. One such researcher is George Gallup. Here are the results of a Fall 1995 Gallup poll: Percentage of respondents who agreed with the following statements: Religion is "very important in their life" Attended college 53 percent No college 63 percent Religion can "answer all or most of today's problems" Attended college 58 percent No college 65 percent A more recent poll, "The Gallup international Millenium survey" ( http://www.gallup-international.com/survey15.htm ) shows the same negative correlation between education and religion, and also between intelligence and religion. For college graduates, 52% are religious and 25% are committed to church attendance, while the percentages are 70% and 33% for people who only completed primary school." "
Well, some people rationalize everything so much that they deny the existence of the Spiritual because they can't intellectualize it! Hilarious!! You'd think that if a person could think and learn they would realize that they may not know quite EVERYTHING that there is to know.
Jesus has saved me and continues to save me. If it is not for him, I would not be able to breath, eat or walk. Yes, I am a Jesus freak, it is my belief system and way of life. I might not be able to intellecutalize it for you or write a post doctral thesis, but I know he exist and saves lives every single second. My friend, I am a walking miracle, I walk by faith and by sight. So go ahead and call me: a dumb, degnerate, brian washed, Jesus freak moron but my IQ and academic achievements say otherwise. God bless y'all!
Not knowing doesn't prove anything. You might not be aware of this, but the fact that you can't explain 100% of the world, doesn't mean that the rest gets explained by God. I'm not sure what you mean with intellectualize here, I mean, it seems like you are trying to say that because I can't explain why some people think there is room for some sort of "god", it exists. Ehm. You know I can't explain why some people write e-mails in caps lock either, but that doesn't mean that they are on to something...