Are religious people less intelligent than atheists?

"Ignoramus21164" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

As sufferers of the helpless-victim mentality, libs attempt to raise their own relative self-esteem by degrading that of others, Gunner for example, in contrast to conservatives who have matured enough to understand that they can only improve themselves through their own efforts and accomplishments.

The media has devolved from presenting heroes worth emulating to giving the couch potatoes flawed characters they can feel superior to.

You busted yourself by doing what you're complaining about, demonstrating that you feel superior to liberals, and haplessly over generalizing. You're a LOT less clever than you think.

As for the topic at hand, this guy can explain it to you.

BTW, did you see this story?

Notice to enterprising hit men - You have at least two customers willing to share the cost of killing me. One has all the world's treasure at his disposal, and the other has an endless supply of puppies and prospective customers. What are you waiting for?

Everything is devolved, but the media seems to be the most impacted

I disagree with the assumption that atheists must be liberals.

That was Wilkins' least offensive assumption.

Fascinating religion map link there.

Briggs has an interesting take on the study of studies:

I can see how the sheltering effect from excessive religious beliefs (It's against my religion so I can't read that or think that.) can heavily shade the study, but I think it's a small shading, not the vast extent Miron shows/thinks. After all, he's a professor at a liberal college environment and has his own personal biases which may (hah!) not have been filtered out. And I'll bet a whole lot different picture would have developed had they asked all the participants in all the studies the question "Are you religious (belief w/ church), spiritual (belief/no church), or athiest (no belief/no church)?" But religion is one of those things people lie through their teeth about, so I doubt any poll would gather truthful data. In the Western world, it's not kosher to be Jewish, Catholic, atheist, non-religious, or Islamic, so most pollers ask "Are you a Christian?" and most people say "I'm a Christian", no matter what they actually believe or practice. It's just easier, and you take much less flack.

BTW, I believe in God (Crom, any name you like) but totally eschew any and all organized religion and their churches, period.

As do I, but I believe that more liberals than conservatives are athiest. Probably by a good margin.

I believe that equally true about religious folks. Beck included .

Precisely. Media give out gazillions of Participation Awards and Self Esteem Plaques.

Har! So true.

It's a magnet for people who resent that they don't fit in.

What does Hollywood have to do with news reporting?

Everybody has a different belief system, even two guys that sit next to each other at church or two little girls at the Global Warming services.

There is no higher power than 'personal enrichment' that one must answer to.

Best Regards Tom.

Religious people's belief systems are inherently irrational.

Pay Attention! The owner of the imaginary backhoe is lecturing us on reality!

Rather like Good Old Gummer talking about the Great Cull. And the tidal wave of lack of belief that invokes.

Religious person: someone who believes in God, by whatever name. Agnostic: someone who doesn't know if God exists. Atheist: someone who believes there is no god. So, the only one without a belief system is the agnostic.

What I love is when some person of some faith believes that their God is the only God, and their heaven is the only heaven. If you don't believe _their_way_, you will not go to heaven, you will rot in Hell.

I am absolutely certain that the world would be a better place without organized religion.

The root problem is ignorance, and you're exhibit B in this newsgroup.

More accurately, someone who believes that the existence or nonexistence of god(s) is *unknowable*. It's about epistemology, not about shrugging your shoulders and saying "I dunno." What you're describing is someone who doesn 't know how to think, not an agnostic.

No, not necessarily. This has been explained to you several times in this t hread. You don't understand the difference between *belief* and *lack of be lief*.

A real agnostic has a very strong system of belief. It just has nothing to do with gods.

Only a minority of atheists believe that. Most simply do not have a belief in any god. "Don't have a belief in" is not the same as "believe there is no".