whichphilosophy

And of course this is only opinion from some psychiatrists and their groupies who have no scientific proof.

pachomius2000

(If this post gets edited by the moderator, and people want to have the unabridged original, please send me a private message or an email, [email protected].)

I have a confession to make.

I believe in God and I talk to and with Him. But so far I have not received any certainly verifiable talk-back from Him. Just the same, if any good things happen to me, I give Him thanks. And in all humility, life has been so far generally good for me. So, here's to God: "Thanks a lot! and please also do something for peace and harmony and economic weal among peoples, who are not as well situated as us guys who have the leisure to exchange messages in internet boards. Amen".


Modesty aside for my own part, I think I can see all the convincing positions of atheists anti-religion people. And I consider religion a luxury which I indulge in myself, and feel safe with on the basis of the freedom of religion guaranteed in modern democratic society, ascribing to the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

What I want to see is whether intelligent people like me, modesty aside of course and on a presumptive basis, can adopt the same kind of attitude or mental outlook I have, namely, accept all the rational arguments in favor of atheism and a-religion, yet cultivate a religion without going overboard like I would think is the case with al-Qaeda folks -- of course we can ask whether these people are really religiously motivated, or into an ultra national political advocacy, like the past pioneers of today's defunct communism or our present day U.S. Neocon doctrinnaires.

By intelligence I would like us all to concentrate on the kind of intelligence that is established by accepted IQ tests.

I understand that there is an international society called Mensa where members are certified as gifted with superior IQ. Now, I am not a member and can’t qualify. But my schools days IQ tests revealed that I do border on the above average intelligence score.

Do we have reports about the religious affiliations of Mensa people, that there are more among them or less with a sincere profession of some religiion whether monotheistic or non-theistic?

And may we then draw a very rough conclusion that IQ correlates positively or negatively with religion, meaning, the more IQ the more people are religious or otherwise.

Similar probings can be made of Nobel prize winners in their respective fields. For example, winners in literature and in peace might be represented more by people with religion than without. And maybe winners in science might exhibit a negative correlation with religion(?).

In this connection some years back I read something about businessmen who succeed are guys with enviable intelligence, than the rest of mortals. So, we can also examine whether they correlate positively or negatively with religion.


Pachomius2000

premjan

we have to qualify the different types of religion.

• there are those who basically believe in some variant of the invisible pink unicorn in opposition to the absence of a shred of objective verifiable evidence. These people are probably deluded probably psychologically susceptible in one way or another.
• there are those who believe in religion as some kind of "essential mystery" and many scientists may be included in this number. This we could say, is acceptable, but mostly a form of emotional cushion and wishful thinking.
• there are those who wish for an orderly moral universe where all evil is punished and good rewarded. these people may not function so effectively in a real world which seems to reward only success in many cases.
• there are social reformers (including the communists) who wish to remake the social order. this may be misguided and grandiose.
• there are moreover many people of an artistic bent who might favor some kind of transcendental philosophy.
• we might say that religion represents a vote for the unknown ineffable over the visible and verifiable. inasmuch as there is always going to be some things that are unknown, perhaps religion is a harmless form of romanticism as opposed to practicality.

Perhaps the preference for religion / philosophy (and some similar beliefs) over science / law (and other similar fields) indicates a predominantly synthetic rather than analytic mode of thought? This would explain why some "big-picture" scientists like Einstein are deists wherein relativity is more about altering the way we think about fundamental reality rather than the way we think about some particular artifact.

Ms. Siv

Correlations you may find ... causations you will not.

Ms. Siv

LWF is a Christian ??
Jeez, that expains it

DaninGraniteCity

Bipolar disorder is the politically correct word for the manic depressive condition.

justsumner

Yes, MENSA (Table) has been around for a bit. I am amazed at the number of Xians that are members. However...most that I have been in contact with will state up front "I just believe, although there is no proof." No Y.E. arguments, no "evolution is wrong" blathering.

Refreshing to hear a Xian say "I have no real proff of any god, I just believe. I don't know why, but I do.

At least that's honesty.

One more thing. The threshold for MENSA was 140. Now I understand it is down to 132. Is this slumming? Or are the tests just not that relevant? :huh:

Clivedurdle

IQ tests measure IQ!

I remember a study years ago of Australian Aborogines who were given IQ tests - terrible results, bordering on severe learning difficulties....

Snag is, that in their context they were brilliant at survival in the desert, making tools, remembering and telling stories, observation to find water and food. Typical normal, highly intelligent human beings!

I think we are all very intelligent. What happens is that some of us learn or are taught better ways to use our minds and bodies - I did not say what societies may have cracked which bits!

radagast

This is completely anecdotal, but I've seen very little evidence of a corrolation between intelligence and rationality. And I'm not including folks that are considered mentally ill to skew the results. What I have seen is people having positions that support thier personal emotional and or ego structure, then use their intelligence to rationalize their position.

In arguments over religion, I've seen religious folk use some very obtuse logic to rationalize their positions, and often seen the same from atheists.

Given higher order intelligence is a rather late arrival on the evolutionary scene, for humans, I suspect we have a tendency of using our more primative emotional/desire/ego centers for making decisions, then defend the positions we take with our intellect.

flintknapper

I may be wrong on this, but I believe I read that the Mensa Organiation has endorsed Intelligent Design. Um, how smart is that?