God is stupid

I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of this. They went ahead and did it. They proved that religious people are on average dumber than non-religious people. Wikipedia I could kiss you. Of course the religious cry-babies that they are, those of faith are now complaining that the tests are unfair or inconclusive bla bla bla. But the simple fact of the matter is “all but four of the forty-three polls listed support the conclusion that native intelligence varies inversely with degree of religious faith”.

However, credit must go to some Christians who are being very sporting about the whole thing and not denying anything, even saying that the research gels with 1 Corinthians 1 v 26-27:

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

So if the research says so, and God says so, then surely religious people are, in fact, stupid (click here for a technical definition of stupid)?

While we’re on the subject of intelligence, Wikipedia also has an interesting article on IQ. Some interesting results:


This last table is a bit confusing. The 67 must be interpreted as the % of people with IQ's above a 125 that are married by the age of 30.

One particularly relevant section in this Wikipedia entry is the one regarding Public Policy. It says that very rarely will someone with an IQ below 70 be sentenced to death in the US. Although there are no explicit laws against it, it goes against the spirit of the eighth amendment, which protects the people against “cruel and unusual punishment”. Essentially there is a national consensus in the US that an IQ below 70 means that you cannot be held accountable for your actions. At this point I can’t help but recall Hein’s earlier entry “You, sir, are an idiot”, which states that the average IQ in South Africa is 72. This means that, by US standards, almost half the population of South Africa should not be legally held accountable for their actions. Taking all this into account, and adding to mix the fact that SA is actually a very pleasant place to live in, I am tempted to believe in some kind of God.