Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent

[_emilysmith]

[_Milesius]

What's your point?

[_emilysmith]

You may draw your own conclusions.

[_emilysmith]

You may draw your own conclusions.

[_moksha]

My conclusion is that you are making fun of third world countries by comparing them with Sweden and the Netherlands.

[_CaliforniaKid]

You strike me as someone who is intoxicated with his own ideas, which is odd, since they are not at all intoxicating.

You have to actually partake of them for the intoxication to kick in.

(Were you and Mike Reed separated at birth?)

Not that I know of, though I suppose it's a possibility. We're both around the same age, smart, and ridiculously good-looking...

[_thews]

Not that I know of, though I suppose it's a possibility. We're both around the same age, smart, and ridiculously good-looking...

I literally laughed out loud. I don't care who you are... that's funny.

[_richardMdBorn]

Intelligence is difficult to measure, since it is applied in so many different ways... most of which are impossible to capture in a written test.

Motivation is the key to being successful, not intelligence. A properly motivated person of average intelligence will do far better in life than someone with above average intelligence who has no motivation.

I agree. Three years ago I went to the 50th Anniversary celebration of the launch of Vanguard 1. That was a group of very bright motivated people.

[_richardMdBorn]

Jonathan Haidt on religion:

Surveys have long shown that religious believers in the United States are happier, healthier, longer-lived, and more generous to charity and to each other than are secular people. Most of these effects have been documented in Europe too. …Atheists may have many other virtues, but on one of the least controversial and most objective measures of moral behavior -- giving time, money, and blood to help strangers in need -- religious people appear to be morally superior.

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/origina ... _psyc.html

[_CaliforniaKid]

Surveys have long shown that religious believers in the United States are happier, healthier, longer-lived, and more generous to charity and to each other than are secular people. Most of these effects have been documented in Europe too. …Atheists may have many other virtues, but on one of the least controversial and most objective measures of moral behavior -- giving time, money, and blood to help strangers in need -- religious people appear to be morally superior.

Religious people tend to be politically conservative, whereas irreligious people tend to be politically liberal. The two groups have different styles of giving-- conservatives individually, liberals collectively through government. Individual giving is all well and good, but it's ultimately inadequate to resolve the problems created by growing economic inequality.

It doesn't surprise me that religious people are happier and longer-lived. There's something to be said for the institutional support and the sense of certainty about the meaning of life that religion provides.