jump to navigation

Will the Stupid Atheists Please Stand Up December 13, 2006

Posted by ocmpoma in : atheism , trackback

Recently the question was brought up on the forums that perhaps atheists are, by default, not stupid. I think it’s fairly on-point — atheists often deride theists as being, shall we say, less than optimally intelligent. I think it’s fairly simple to answer the question, too: Not applicable.

The reasons for this are, of course, not so simple.

First off is the misuse in the original question of the word atheist. Basically, as is all-too common, by atheist it is meant a science-embracing, materialist, skeptical, rational thinker. To say that atheist means that is comparable to saying that theist means not only muslim, but Sunni. In order to qualify as an atheist, one simply has to lack belief in deities. Atheism, in and of itself, has absolutely nothing to do with supernaturalism, skepticism, or even religion. So, we’d have to rephrase the question to ask if a certain kind of atheist is by default smart. And that leads us to problem number two.

Which is the nature of the word smart. What, exactly, is meant by this? Intelligence is a subject both broad and deep: is someone who can’t do differential equations smart? What about someone who only speaks one language? Is intelligence the amount of knowledge, the breadth of it, or the capability of having it — whether it is actually possessed or not? Or is intelligence associated with problem solving, rather than knowledge? And how is problem solving associated with the knowledge required to solve it? It seems to me that what was meant in the original question is the kind of intelligence which allows someone to think abstractly, to move from specifics to generalities and back again.

So, we re-phrase the question: does a certain kind of atheist possess, by default, a certain kind of intelligence? The answer to this is - of course not. One could easily be a skeptical, rational, materialistic atheist without possessing that particualr kind of intelligence. Perhaps one was raised to be such a person, instead of arriving at that position on one’s own. Perhaps one is skeptical and rational, but still no great abstract thinker or problem-solver. Even that specific kind of atheism does not imply that specific kind of intelligence.

A much more interesting question, to me, is the reverse: does that kind of intelligence imply that kind of atheism? Or, more specifically:

Does a marked ability for abstract thought and detail / general scope switching, when coupled with a skeptical frame of mind and a favoritism for rational thought, lead to atheism?

I think that the answer to this is, “Perhaps, but not inexorably.” The reason for this is, to me, the most important thing to understand about the atheist / theist dichotomy: consistency.

Tags for this article: ,

[?]

Comments»

no comments yet - be the first?