Thread: The Nonreligious Are More Intelligent

I recently read an article by Dr. James Allan Cheyne which argued a new hypothesis on the Flynn effect. With it came a lot of other evidence to provide the idea that rising Atheism is related to rising intelligence.

The Flynn Effect

For those un-aware, each generation has been having rising average IQ scores.
+ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19056409
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

So, for each generation, we are getting smarter! But it is silly think that our older ancestors were complete retards, so we must think of what it is we are getting smarter at!

ACH Thinking

Abstract Categorical and Hypothetical (ACH) thinking is assessed in the Raven's and Weschler Similarities tests (segments of the primary IQ tests). Now while our ancestors and elders are obviously not complete Neanderthals, they were actually lacking in their scores for ACH thinking. Instead of focusing on developing independent ACH thinking, there was more focus on fundamental learning for immediate pertinent use (ie. writing, arithmetic, and reading - the three "R"'s).

In our later generations, though, we have developed this thinking and learned to become more engrossed in our creative venture. It was because of people like Dewey who encouraged pragmatic learning that encourage this ACH thinking.
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
+ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/

But what does ACH thinking encourage for religious beliefs and how is it affected?

Rise of Atheism

It is of no question that Atheism has been a minority group for a long time in our history. However, correlated with the Flynn effect and rising ACH thinking is Atheism! To better represent this, we can see the highly educated peoples beliefs in God rise over time. Within the National Academy of Science, it is only around 7% of them (in 2007) that believe in a higher power.


+ http://community.boredofstudies.org/...reject-god.pdf


+ http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm

Atheism and IQ

Now, in consideration of the above, let us look at comparisons of Atheism and intelligence.

Spoiler for Intelligence and Belief in God - Large Graph:

+ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...f6f8ce4b6001de

"Atheists score 1.95 IQ points higher than Agnostics, 3.82 points higher than Liberal persuasions, and 5.89 IQ points higher than Dogmatic persuasions. Denominations differ significantly in IQ and income. Religiosity declines between ages 12 to 17"
+ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...603d3a648ff43a


+ http://hypnosis.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm
- The one circled in red is the US.
- Verified link: http://hypnosis.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm
- Note; the image above is a remake of the graph from the link provided here.

It is easy to see then that there is a direct correlation with Atheism and intelligence. Furthermore, countries religious beliefs reflect their IQ scores.

Evolution

As a side note, I wanted to quickly review the relation of evolution to Atheism and IQ.


- This is a visual representation of IQ scores and countries
+ http://www.lnb.lt/stotisFiles/upload...9617104937.pdf


+ http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=507

I cannot help but notice the striking evolutionary nonacceptance and the United States' still relatively high IQ. So I looked further;


+ http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=...TOKEN=46350460

"The results show that the majority of people polled have heard of Charles Darwin with the highest levels of awareness in Russia (93%), Mexico (91%), Great Britain (91%), and China (90%) whilst less than half of people polled in Egypt (38%) and South Africa (27%) saying they had not heard of him. Overall, the majority (70%) of people surveyed have heard of the British naturalist.

Adults in the United States (84%) showed the highest levels of awareness and understanding of evolution and Darwin’s theories followed by Great Britain (80%) saying they had a ‘good or some knowledge’ of the theory of evolution

In all countries polled more people agreed than disagreed that it is possible to believe in a God and hold the view that life evolved on Earth by means of natural selection at the same time, with those in India most likely (85%) to be of this opinion, followed by Mexico (65%), Argentina (63%), South Africa, Great Britain (54%), USA, Russia (53%), Egypt, Spain (45%), and China (39%).

In six out of ten countries the majority of people who had heard of Charles Darwin and know something about his theory of evolution agreed with the view that there is enough scientific evidence that exists to support the theory against an overall average of 54 percent.

Only Russia (48%), USA (42%), South Africa (41%) and Egypt (25%) remained sceptical about the scientific evidence that exists to support Darwin’s theory.

The results also show that a significant proportion of those people surveyed in the USA, South Africa and India (43%) believe that all life on Earth, including human life, has always existed in its current form.

In all other countries, people in China (74%), Mexico (69%), Argentina (68%), Great Britain (63%) Russia, Spain (56%), and Egypt (52%) were of the view that more people thought that life on Earth, including human life, evolved over time either by a process guided by God or as a result of natural selection in which no God played a part."
+ http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/Pr...-of-evolution/
+ http://www.britishcouncil.org/darwin...vey_global.pdf

The odd thing about these surveys is that the USA stands out as an outlier. Although the USA has the second lowest acceptance of evolution, it still maintains a rather high IQ. However, in the words of this blogger:

As you can see, there is a clear correlation between religiosity and intelligence on the international stage. Countries with a high religious population have an inversely proportional intelligence rate. High religiosity indicates low intelligence, high intelligence indicates low religiosity.

On closer inspection you notice the one outlier; the United States (shown in red). The US has a moderately high intelligence rate, it doesn’t break 100, but it’s fairly good, but also has a rather high religiosity. My opinion is that this is due to their unique “Separation of Church and State” laws, which, whether you like it or not, are blatantly apparent in the constitution and memoirs of the founding fathers. This lack of government support forced the Churches to adapt to the community in order to survive and as a result less of the population dropped their religion. This is why religion in the US is much more progressive than fundamentalist groups in Europe, which have lost up to 90% of the population to Atheism.

Notice how the most religious country is also the least intelligent. Australia is shown in blue.

Conclusions

Abstract categorical and hypothetical (ACH) thinking is rising. Atheism is rising. Intelligence is rising. Evolutionary acceptance and knowledge is rising.

It is really just that simple.

What do you think...?

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