Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to analysis of scores of scientific studies stretching back over decades

[Dinner]

pointless thread

this is already known

religionistas don't care

studies are dismissed just like science

And that is the sad truth.

[Ben Kenobi]

Leave it to Ben to point out an exception as proof that the survey has no value. Not very scientific.

If the scientific method was designed by a Catholic priest then I don't see how you can cite it as evidence in favor of atheists. Surely if they were so smart, wouldn't they have developed it first?

[MikeH]

Being a Catholic priest in those times doesn't prove he believed in God, only that he pretended to.

Many priests have lost their faith but continue to preach.

[MikeH]

I would pretend to believe in God in those days... and would probably have been indoctrinated to anyway.

[kentonio]

If the scientific method was designed by a Catholic priest then I don't see how you can cite it as evidence in favor of atheists. Surely if they were so smart, wouldn't they have developed it first?

That's some stupid ****, right there.

[dannubis]

STOP ....

QUOTING ....

BEN !!!!

Please

[rah]

It's always entertaining to see Ben bring down the average.

And yes there probably was a lot of truth in Mike's comment. And that's probably still somewhat true today. I'm sure there were quite a few pedophiles that didn't truly believe in god. They just joined the priesthood for the opportunities.

[Lorizael]

There's a far less sinister truth to what MikeH is saying. It's that joining the priesthood was just something you did way back when. It was a path to literacy and education and also had some religious trappings to it if you were into that kind of thing.

[rah]

I didn't see anything sinister in Mike's comments. Yes it was the path to education for those third sons that weren't in line to inherit.

[MikeH]

There's a far less sinister truth to what MikeH is saying. It's that joining the priesthood was just something you did way back when. It was a path to literacy and education and also had some religious trappings to it if you were into that kind of thing.

That's what I meant.

[Ben Kenobi]

Being a Catholic priest in those times doesn't prove he believed in God, only that he pretended to.

That's actually a scotsman! well done, Mike.

[Lorizael]

I didn't see anything sinister in Mike's comments. Yes it was the path to education for those third sons that weren't in line to inherit.

No, there's something sinister in what you were saying. I'm sure some priests hide their unbelief and use the priesthood as a cover for their extracurricular activities, but I doubt that happens very often. Just the same, I'm willing to bet that priests who produced scientific work in medieval times were usually not hiding their lack of belief. Rather, they took their belief for granted, or it wasn't terribly important to them, or it was just a tradition. And of course, there were some priests who believed their scientific work was done in god's name and were apparently quite religious. Whether they truly believed or simply presented themselves as believers because it was politically expedient to do so is hard to say. But humans are quite capable of believing seemingly contradictory things, so I have no trouble believing many priests were both religious and scientific and saw no contradiction.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Being a Catholic priest in those times doesn't prove he believed in God, only that he pretended to.

Many priests have lost their faith but continue to preach.

That's as reaching a comment as Ben makes... or at least as much of a BAM .

There is no requirement that one join the Franciscan Order in "those times".

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have no trouble believing many priests were both religious and scientific and saw no contradiction.

There is no contradiction between being religious and scientific.

[giblets]

If the scientific method was designed by a Catholic priest then I don't see how you can cite it as evidence in favor of atheists. Surely if they were so smart, wouldn't they have developed it first?

The "scientific method" isn't really a thing you can credit to a single person so I don't see how your hypothetical about a Catholic priest coming up with it is relevant.