Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ

www.cnn.com...

"The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward," said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. "It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people -- people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower -- are likely to be the ones to do that."

Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart," he said.

Participants who said they were atheists had an average IQ of 103 in adolescence, while adults who said they were religious averaged 97, the study found. Atheism "allows someone to move forward and speculate on life without any concern for the dogmatic structure of a religion," Bailey said.

"Historically, anything that's new and different can be seen as a threat in terms of the religious beliefs; almost all religious systems are about permanence," he noted.

When I read this I just thought to myself, I was right! They state that people whom are generally, Liberal, are smarter and care more about total strangers compared to, Conservative, whom are less intelligent and tend to care more about family and friends. Smarter men tend to only have one sexual partner compared to the, lesser intelligent man whom has more than 1. Additionally people whom are atheist/agnostic tend to be smarter than those whom are theist.

While you can not stereotpye that all leftists are smart and righties are dumb, you can state that overall the left is smarter than the right. You can have smart conservatives and you can have dumb liberals.

There is already a thread on this here;

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Misoir


I have many little pet peeves. One of them are atheists that think they are smarter than theists or that think they are smart just because they are atheists.


I am a "liberal" and I am a "theists"...I really don't like labeling myself but if I was labeled that is what I would be. So according to your studies...I'm both more likely to be smart and dumb at the same time


I do a little experiment on some other forums...asking atheists a simple logic question. The website I do this on have atheists on it that have a rep for claiming how "logical" they are and how they are atheits because of their "logical" conclusions. So when I give them these little logic quizes...which anyone with basic formal logic education would have no problem doing...I would say it is above 90% of atheists that can't do them. Some don't even try, some try and are horribly wrong, and some just attack me. And I get accused of all sorts of things...the one I like the best is that the logice I am asking about is "different" logic then what they use

So excuse me for not believing this "studies". Like you said...you can have dumb or smart people in any group. So these studies say nothing about the individual...and that is all that really matters.


And btw...you left out the fact that liberal women are more prone to sexual non-exclusivity. It is only the liberal men that are more likely to have 1 sexual partner.

[edit on 27-2-2010 by OutKast Searcher]

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


So until someone comes along with a study that directly proves you yourself the individual to be a moron, then it's fallable? awesome logic.

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


I'm gonna have to agree with this one. The fact that you don't believe in a god is not the same thing that makes you smarter. It's merely correlating the two facts that people who are more intelligent are liberal, and people who are more liberal tend to be more atheistic. Like I said, you are merely correlating the two. There is nothing more intelligent about believing there is no god compared to believing that there is a god.

Your belief in a god shouldn't change your perspective towards the facts that science is a great tool, people deserve to be treated equally and lovingly, and that we must treat each other and the world with respect. I'm a proud Christian, but nothing in my doctrine promotes me to deny science, judge people, or to be less accepting. Ha, and I was voted Most intelligent in my grade 12 year and am currently enjoying University studies.

Watch out because correlation does not imply causation.

This isn't much different from those 'studies' back in the day that showed racial or ethnic superiority.

Besdies, I know plenty of people in the 130-180 range and quite a few are complete imbeciles despite their digits.

Without being speciffic I float within that range and am closer to an anarchist or libertarian than liberal or conservative as the terms are used today. I don't practice any religion but given the scope of the known universe and all which we do not know I would be foolish to dismiss the possibility of a god or superior being of some familiar or unfamiliar form. Who's to say there isn't some "Q-esque" entity floating about somewhere between space and time?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by Loki


No...I am saying that these studies are incorrectly used by people like the OP to say..."see...I'm atheists/liberal...and this study says that atheists/liberals are more intelligent...so I am more intelligent then theists/conservatives".

All these studies say is that as a group there is a statisticaly they are more intelligent. It says nothing about the individuals. It could be as individuals...liberals/atheists are all close to the average level of intelligence shown. And as individuals it could be that theists/conservatives have half that are very very low intelligence and half that are very very high intelligence. I'm not saying this is how it is...I'm just pointing out that these studies don't show that.


And so I don't like these studies because they are used by one side to say..."see...I'm smarter because I am an atheists/liberal".

And if you don't think that happens...then I don't think you are paying attention.

Ah nice, more studies that only further divide people and get them all riled up. I see we're on the way to a more peaceful tomorrow.

[edit on 27-2-2010 by Whine Flu]

A history professor I had back in university quoted a statistic once that 90% of university professors in the US are Democrats. I'm not entirely sure what that says about Democrats (or university professors) but I thought I'd throw that out there to think about.

I find this researcher's hypothesis (that evolutionarily "novel" viewpoints tend to be taken by more intelligent people) to be laughable, on the grounds that most hunting-gathering tribes have always been what we would "liberal" societies. Given that we lived that lifestyle for far longer than we've lived in "civilized" or "industrialized" societies, I think that the entire hypothesis is shot to hell.

And I say this as an atheist (although not as somebody who would prefer sexual exclusivity, given the alternative of being a drunken whore-monger...so maybe I'm biased afterall?)



[edit on 4-3-2010 by theWCH]