I don't know enough about the teachings of all of them to make that correlation. I have always suspected that religions benefit from economically challeged regions, and uneducated peoples..... But have seen no data to back that up. DD
My guess is they take the amount folks claim on their tax return and compare it to income. That being said, they probably miss a lot of poor folks (especially those religious), who may give a low amount, but high percentage of income.
I want to play devil's, I mean disciple's advocate here. How on EARTH do you rate a state's average IQ. That stat is never collected for most people, right? It's not like they measure it and stamp it on your driver's license, so that's already suspect. The whole chart is just designed to paint faith in the worst possible light, IMHO, and putting this alleged IQ right next to the religiousness # is an obvious way to start. And the red/green correlation is too close to "red states." The worst of everything (except religiousness) is red, and then, what do you know, the more religious you are, the more you earn the "bad" color. All that said, it is interesting to look at for specific states. Utah, California and Hawaii are kind of interesting as outliers.
That is an excellent point, how can you get an average IQ from a state? Maybe from their school test scores? DD
I have seen such a graph. You'd see the Netherlands rockin' the green. The Middle East and Eastern Eurasia rockin' the red. The only thing bunk about this graph is the fact that the "occurances of theft" isn't adjusted for population by state.
You are correct. I missed the IQ column when I made the previous post. The rest of them are High=red and low=green.
I'm not saying that I agree with the statement that uneducated people tend to be more religious (I would definitely want to see data before making any such claim), but picking two examples of great thinkers that were religious does not refute the argument.
I would not be surprised by studies showing a correlation between education and religion. I just do not believe that religion causes a person to be less intelligent especially based upon a ridiculous argument that going to church on Sunday morning instead of a library makes people dumber. Trust me I can name a lot more than 2 people who are intelligent and are religious, I just did not think it was necessary.
Ancedotal. You point out two smart Christians, and someone could easily point out two dumb ones. Of course, there will be exceptions in every group. But this graph is dealing in generalities.
Makes sense. I believe Mississippi also has by far the highest amount of obese people. Fat, poor, stupid, and devoutly Christian. Doesn't get much better than that. The less educated, the more fundamental the belief structure, the less likely to accept any higher knowledge as anything but an attack on "faith". Many uneducated people cling to their faith because it is the only thing that vindicates them of their own poor social standing. They believe they will be rewarded in Heaven for their faith and their suffering. They see faith as more of a crutch. When they don't understand something, they can just write it off as a matter of divinity that is beyond human understanding. This is why there remains such a disconnect between the Christian and the Scientific community. It isn't just that the belief system is being put into question, its that human knowledge is growing rapidly and the more we discover, the more enlightened we become the less easier it becomes for Christians to weasel their way out of arguments by pointing simple-minded explanations found in the Bible. On the contrary the smart Christians I know are much more practical in their beliefs. They accept scientific breakthroughs and most of them believe in some form of evolution. They seem to believe in God for some other reasons. I cannot pinpoint it really, because it seems unlikely that a cynical mind can still accept such a silly premise... yet it remains ingrained in their DNA.
What the hell is religiousness? But really, I'm in law school and don't have time to argue this again. See other thread.
Wow, looks like the USA and Turkey are lagging far behind the rest of the world in scientific beliefs. DD
Probably some measure of people who attend church on a regular basis, believe there is a god/divine plan, etc.
Those are two separate things. If (and I don't know if the stat is still correct) 90% of Americans believe in God, how does VT get a # like 42. 42 what? The chart is just ridiculous, biased, and unhelpful in providing understanding if they don't say what "religiousness" is.
yes, but so? like I said, it can be a multitude of parameters used in conjunction, given different weight, etc. my guess is those two things factored in somehow. the heaviest being the belief in a personal god.
It would be interesting to see DonnyMost's graph/question broken down by individual states. I suspect in some of the southeastern states we could be looking at 75% of people answering "no." I'll bet Texas is at least 50% "no."
