Message 1 of 88 (597593) 12-22-2010 4:13 PM

The first thing i found was

from http://hypnosis.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm

Tough this could be disputed because there are other causes that correlate like GDP.

So i looked further and i found more interesting studies like

And there is more on the subject on this site from where the quotes come
from
http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/...Intelligence%20&%20religion.htm

So does this mean that we atheists had it all wrong and the religious are not being stubborn and deluded on purpose they just cannot grasp reality and evidence as easily as we can.

Message 3 of 88 (597706) 12-23-2010 3:39 PM

Reply to: Message 2 by frako 12-23-2010 1:07 PM

This admin doesn't put much stock in IQ tests, but what you're probably really wondering about is when this will be promoted. I generally stay away from the religious threads, so when I saw "Religion" in the title I didn't take a look, but now that I've read your proposal I think this would be a good fit for the Is It Science? forum.

Message 5 of 88 (597711) 12-23-2010 4:01 PM

Reply to: Message 1 by frako 12-22-2010 4:13 PM

Otherwise, I strongly suspect all that is being measured here is the tendency of the intelligent to adopt culturally differential opinions and attitudes. I predict if you were to measure this in China, where Atheism is the norm, you'd find that the religious have a higher IQ on average.

Even if the correlation is true, it's not clear that it means anything since it's abundantly clear that there are large numbers of clever believers, and stupid atheists.

Message 6 of 88 (597712) 12-23-2010 4:10 PM

Reply to: Message 1 by frako 12-22-2010 4:13 PM

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.

Real things always push back.
-William James

Message 7 of 88 (597715) 12-23-2010 4:22 PM

Reply to: Message 6 by Omnivorous 12-23-2010 4:10 PM

Like Georges Lemaître and Greg Mendel?

Message 8 of 88 (597718) 12-23-2010 4:34 PM

Reply to: Message 7 by jar 12-23-2010 4:22 PM

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.

Real things always push back.
-William James

Message 9 of 88 (597724) 12-23-2010 4:52 PM

Reply to: Message 5 by Dr Jack 12-23-2010 4:01 PM

IQ is a measurement of different skills it has nothing to do with knowledge (well a small bit one need to know how to read, and in some cases calculate).

I dunno if you have ever taken an iq test but while i was in school one was preformed before you entered primary school. (just in case some one with a very high iq or a very low IQ would not be neglected or misunderstood.) And one some where in the middle of primary school to see how we are doing. I dunno those tests tough as a joke i applied for Mensa and failed by 20 points lol still not bad.

And IQ does not remain the same trough ones lifetime. If you think of the brain as a muscle the more you use it the stronger it gets and if you do not use it it gets weak.

A better one to use would be Japan only 12% of them say religion is verry important and they have an average IQ of 105, While the US 60% of the people say that religion is verry important and you have an average IQ of 98/97

Sadly i do not have a survey perticulary questioning a person in those regions about their beliefs and their IQ as a comparison.

Sure there are exceptions to any norm

Edited by frako, : No reason given.

Message 10 of 88 (597725) 12-23-2010 5:01 PM

Reply to: Message 6 by Omnivorous 12-23-2010 4:10 PM

Usualy IQ tests have no baring if you come from bangladesh or the US.

things like this are in it and you have to anwser right by selecting one of the answers.

The further you progress trough such a test the harder it gets and using the time it took you to solve it and the number of correct answers a psychologist then takes what not in to account and calculates your IQ

I see no reason why culture would have an impact, what would have an impact is the use of ones mind in the course of ones lifetime up to the test.

Message 11 of 88 (597731) 12-23-2010 5:31 PM

Reply to: Message 10 by frako 12-23-2010 5:01 PM

I have a suspicion that religious people tend to like the easy answers and might do better than me on the tests.

Message 12 of 88 (597732) 12-23-2010 5:39 PM

Reply to: Message 10 by frako 12-23-2010 5:01 PM

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

Real things always push back.
-William James

Message 13 of 88 (597737) 12-23-2010 6:25 PM

Reply to: Message 12 by Omnivorous 12-23-2010 5:39 PM

Not only do IQ tests contain cultural biases, but also species biases. Hanabi-ko ("Fire Flower Girl", AKA "Fireworks Girl", because she was acquired on 04 July), AKA "Koko", the signing gorilla cover-girl for National Geographic, was given a number of human IQ tests and was scored at 85 and 95. The lower scores were attributed to species bias, such questions as where you would go when it starts to rain; two of the choices were a tree and a house, so as a gorilla she naturally chose the tree whereas a human child would have chosen the house.

Message 14 of 88 (597739) 12-23-2010 6:49 PM

Reply to: Message 13 by dwise1 12-23-2010 6:25 PM

If anyone wants to see the kind of abusive discrimination IQ-test biases produce, google "smarter than koko" without the quotes.

Pretty ugly.

Real things always push back.
-William James

Message 15 of 88 (597747) 12-23-2010 8:37 PM

Reply to: Message 12 by Omnivorous 12-23-2010 5:39 PM

So you are saying religious people tend to be poorer and tend not to promote education to their children.

And still what you have pointed out is not a cultural difference but a difference in standard countries with a lower GDP often tend to have a lower IQ average.

Tough many studies that have been preformed in the past 100 years show that people who are more religius tend to have a lower IQ and do less well in school to.

They get to go to "special" care classes to they do lose ground because those classes proceed slower then normal classes so the children can at least learn the basic my neighbor was such a case and he finished highshcool of economics after he finished the "special/slower" primary school. We think of it as a good thing because if those children where in the same class as those whiteout learning disabilities the "normal" ones would suffer th same goes for the high IQ or smart kids the first iq test is ment to identify them early one so that the teachers can help them achieve their full potential. Usually after class stuff sometimes skipping grades ....

Actually they can be of use to find potential, tough as i said somewhere above IQ is not wholy given at birth if you do not use your brain it will get weak as your muscles get weak if you do not use them. One could use it also as an indicator of how much you actually use your brain.