Amie

Hi Goliath
do you see any positives to religion at all?

Goliath

Amie,

None that can't be had in a world without religion.

Sincerely,

Goliath

Family Man

I suggest that you re-read what I had to say. I was not implying that there are no intelligent Christians. I was suggesting that on average atheists are more intelligent simply because it takes thought to run counter to the societal mainstream. I further suggested that if the situation was reversed, Christians would tend to be more intelligent than atheists.

Goliath

Family Man,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. However, I still don't believe your claim. Do you have any evidence with which to back up your claim?

Sincerely,

Goliath

doodad

I see what you are saying but what's it really worth to be more intelligent, as you say? Jesus was portrayed to be an intelligent person, so for the sake of discussion assume he was and consider this. He was running counter to the societal mainstream of his time and was hung out to dry.
What did it by him in secular terms?

From your last sentence it seem that intelligence is measured in terms of the prevailing school of thought in a society. Yes, we are judged by our peers. Is intelligence in the abstract sense all that subjective? There are many fields of expertise in a large diverse country such as ours so who's intelligent and who's not? If you are speaking of intelligence as the ability to reason and understand things you may be correct, but I
think one can learn this kind of intelligence through training and practice.

Do I see an implication that only the "intelligent" or the intelectuals are productive and positive contributors to our civilization?
Are we to look down on those who work with their hands, or who have a trade? How about a farmer?
How many can he feed? How many can a nuclear physidist feed? The point is this. Many talents have value and utility in this economy that have little to do with smarts.