Atheists are smarter than people who believe in god, according to Professor Richard Lynn and 2 other smart guys who will soon publish a paper to the journal Intelligence. The paper shows a correlation between high intelligence and atheism.

The paper - which was co-written with John Harvey, who does not report a university affiliation, and Helmuth Nyborg, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark - cites studies including a 1990s survey that found that only 7 per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God. A survey of fellows of the Royal Society found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God at a time when a poll reported that 68.5 per cent of the general UK population were believers.

Professor Lynn told Times Higher Education: “Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God.”

He said that most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many began to have doubts and became agnostics.

He added that most Western countries had seen a decline of religious belief in the 20th century at the same time as their populations had become more intelligent.

In my research for this, I found another site that is from 2005, which shows that while Professor Lynn and his colleagues might have a controversial study to report, it doesn’t make it any less true:

In September, 1999, the prestigious magazine, Scientific American, published figures showing that while 90% of the general American public believes in a personal God and an afterlife, only 40% of scientists who are BS-degree-only holders so believe and only 10% of scientists regarded as eminent believe in a personal God or an afterlife.
In a 1998 survey of more than 500 members of the National Academy of Scientists, it was found that 72% were atheists, 21% were agnostics and 7% believed in God. A very similar breakdown was found in relation to belief in an afterlife.

So, basically belief in god means you’re not very bright, you’re young and naive, or you’re uneducated.

Logically, this makes sense. In life, as in all kinds of evolution, we have to give things up, shed old ways that no longer serve us. For instance, we don’t need a tail and haven’t for a very long time so we don’t have one anymore.  Young children, if indoctrinated to believe in fairy tales and a god, will do so easily. But as they grow up and mature, they begin to realize that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus aren’t real, and never were. It’s a sad moment, but part of a natural and healthy progression into maturity.

The main key, in my opinion, to being able to shed religion is to learn to think for yourself as you take in new information from multiple sources. Some children will continue to mature as they learn and educate themselves. Questioning blind faith is not only a mark of intelligence and critical thinking, but also a sign of self esteem. I feel that this must be addressed, as it is incredibly easy to be “smart” but still accept blindly the beliefs of those before you. If you never question why you hold your beliefs, you will forever remain an ignorant sheeple.

It’s definitely easier and “safer” to believe and follow the crowd than risk not believing. But all that does is show that you are weak minded and lazy.

Religion isn’t stupid. It’s a well crafted system that manipulates people and covers all its bases to keep you in line and keep you believing even if you have doubts. They cover those doubts with blanket statements that keep you afraid and weak. Even when their story is full of holes and stolen from previous myths and religions before them, they glue it all together with a shiny coating of future reward balanced with dark threats of eternal damnation.

I’ve found that the smartest people I know are all atheists or at least agnostics. They think for themselves and in so doing, they’ve questioned blind faith and religion and found it lacking on all fronts. The simpler people who tend to follow the crowd, who might be smart in some ways but never think for themselves, they are all religious to some extent.

So there you go. Belief in god makes you stupid.