Religion and IQ

The first thing that occurs to me is that the IQ tests are measuring the barrier religiosity raises to acquiring knowledge and critical reasoning skills.I see IQ tests as measurements of culturally-dependent knowledge: I don't recall the source, but one infamous IQ test example involved questions about golf presented to inner city black kids. In general, a culturally-steeped bright kid will do well; a bright outsider will not. I'd say the religious are not just "being stubborn and deluded on purpose" and "they cannot grasp reality and evidence easily"--not because their native intelligence is low, but because their minds are shackled by the beliefs that prevent their development.

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

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Real things always push back.
-William James

You are welcome to your exceptions, jar. But exceptions only refute absolute assertions. I didn't make any of those.I'm offering frako an alternate explanation for the reported IQ test results. Of course some religious folks are superbly educated, but that's not what happens in the burgeoning church school and home schooling movements.As I said to frako, that was the first alternate explanation that occurred to me.I'm not wedded to it, and I welcome others, or even a dismissal of the data entirely, if reason warrants.

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

You are defining culture too narrowly.The culture of the materially advantaged differs dramatically from that of the materially disadvantaged.My kids had toys that exposed them as infants and toddlers to geometric shapes and spatial relationships. They had games that promoted memory, calculation and inference. They learned to read at precocious ages because I made it a point to teach them.We would talk about why they did well on some tests in school and not others, and how they could do better. They had no learning disabilities and would have received focused therapy for them if they did.That's a pretty common middle-class cultural phenomenon. They both scored extremely well on IQ tests.Consider some of their friends, who lived in homes where toys were blunt instruments, with no intention or reference to cognitive development, where parents were indifferent or hostile to education, where they learned to read only when they reached school, and often not then: remarkably, the U.S. educational system is capable of producing illiterate high school graduates.Early on, students from low income families who have learning disabilities or who lag behind due to their familial environment are warehoused in "special" classes, where they lose even more ground.That's a pretty common cultural phenomenon for low income families in the U.S.Your first example shines with the purity of geometrical shapes--what could be more fair?My kids would have sailed right through it; a kid unexposed to those shapes in a meaningful context early on would struggle with their bare significance, let alone their series relationships.A kid who reads poorly or not at all because U.S. taxpayers no longer want to support decent schools would epically fail your second problem, as would an undiagnosed dyslexic untrained in coping strategies.Plants are cultured poorly or well. It makes no sense to culture one poorly, then tag it as innately inferior.IQ tests are cultural artifacts. It is a tragic mistake to think they are objective measures of intelligence, actual or potential.Edited by Omnivorous, : tpyo

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

Thanks for that dramatic example.If anyone wants to see the kind of abusive discrimination IQ-test biases produce, google "smarter than koko" without the quotes.Pretty ugly.

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

Given the dramatic effect that bilingualism has on the human brain, I cannot but think that Koko's test results--and her brain structure and function--were influenced by the learning of sign language.Denser gray matter in the left hemisphere, and significantly increased neural activity in the right hemisphere when toggling between languages, distinguish the bilingual brain on fMRI scans so clearly it is considered a signature.From the Society for Neuroscience web site:

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More recently, scientists have discovered that bilingual adults have denser gray matter (brain tissue packed with information-processing nerve cells and fibers), especially in the brain’s left hemisphere, where most language and communication skills are controlled. The effect is strongest in people who learned a second language before the age of five and in those who are most proficient at their second language. This finding suggests that being bilingual from an early age significantly alters the brain’s structure.

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Exactly how the brain organizes language in bilingual individuals has been debated for many years. Is each language stored in its own area of the brain or in overlapping regions? Thanks to technological advances in brain imaging, scientists have recently discovered that the processing of different languages occurs in much of the same brain tissue. However, when bilinguals are rapidly toggling back and forth between their two languagesthat is, in bilingual modethey show significantly more activity in the right hemisphere than monolingual speakers, particularly in a frontal area called the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (the source of the bilingual advantages in attention and control). This expanded neural activity is so prominent and predictable on brain scans that it serves as a neurological signature for bilingualism.

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I'd love to see fMRI scans of Koko's brain while she toggles between listening and signing with humans and interacting with her own species.

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

Haha lol you're an ape

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

As I've read this thread, its links and related materials found elsewhere, I've become very doubtful of your hypothesis.Also noted in that blog is that most professionals in the field consider avsab scores good approximations of IQ scores. My own aptitude tests--in school years and in the Army--closely match my IQ scores.As one blog commenter pointed out, the differences shown are smaller than the usual standard deviation of 10 points for IQ tests.Clearly, some religions' beliefs and practices inhibit full intellectual development, and some promote it. I don't see any persuasive evidence that religion per se has that effect.

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

I recall a study which suggested an evolutionary explanation. From the NY Times coverage of the study:

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A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability.

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I don't know if there have been any follow-up studies or analyses, but the comparison of the Ashkenazi cluster of genetic disorders and intelligence with the persistence of sickle cell anemia in the face of the strong selective pressure of malaria is fascinating.Here's the original news story: Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic GenesAnd a good popular summary with links: On The Evolution Of Ashkenazi Jewish IntelligenceI haven't been able to find access to the study itself.I feel pretty confident of the cultural effect; the evolutionary explanation is intriquing and has a definite plausibility, but of course one speculative study is thin gruel.Edited by Omnivorous, : tpypo

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I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
-J. Mellencamp

​

Real things always push back.
-William James