Are Atheists Smarter Than Theists ?

Are atheists smarter than theists? That's a very good question, and I would imagine that people on both sides would like to claim to be the smarter group, and there really has been no evidence (other than personal prejudice) to show either group to have superior intelligence. But now there's a psychologist who claims to have the answer.

Satoshi Kanazawa at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is having an article published in the March issue of Social Psychology Quarterly in which he claims to have proven that atheists are smarter than theists. He got his survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the General Social Survey -- both cross-national data collection sources.

Kanazawa says his study shows that atheists have an average IQ of 103, while theists have an average IQ of 97.

I am an unashamed atheist, and some might think I would take this study to prove that we atheists are smarter. I do not. For one thing, the difference between the two groups is only an almost neglible six points. If one were talking to two people, one with a 97 IQ and the other with a 103 IQ, I doubt anyone could tell which was which. It's far different than talking with a genius and an average IQ person. A 20 to 30 point difference would be noticeable -- a 6 point difference probably wouldn't.

I've also never been really convinced that IQ tests are a good way to test real intelligence. What they do show is how good you are at taking tests, but that may not translate at all into real-world problem-solving skill or a measure of innate intelligence.

Finally, we must remember that this is an average figure. That means there were some atheists that scored below 97 and some theists that scored above 103. A group average tells you nothing about an individual's score.

Let me warn the atheists out there. If you're talking with a theist, don't assume this silly study means you are smarter than that person. You may well be talking to someone who would score higher on an IQ test than you would. I give that same warning to theists.

Do I think my atheist belief is correct? Absolutely! But neither that nor this study proves that all atheists are smarter than all theists, and it would be silly to believe it does.