Liberals and atheists are smarter than us (and other popular myths)

As if militant atheists aren't annoying enough.  Now there is a study that purports to prove that liberals and atheists are more intelligent than conservatives (I suppose that includes libertarians) and people of faith.  This is a sampling of the paper-thin "logic" employed in this "proof".

Before reviewing the specific findings related to atheism and intelligence we should note that Kanazawa takes it as settled that, “it is evolutionarily familiar and natural to believe in God, and evolutionarily novel not to be religious.” Kanazawa maintains this based on recent research in evolutionary psychology that suggests a hyperactive perception of intentionality in the brain that is adaptively paranoid about unknown causes and thus attributes quasi- or supernatural causation as an explanation.

I presuppose it, hence it is true. Tool.

The great divide in intelligence between the "smart" group and the "stupid" group:

[A]dult subjects who identify as “not at all religious” had a mean intelligence as adolescents of 103.09 while the “very religious” had a mean intelligence of 97.14.

Uh huh. Allowing for sampling errors and standard deviation, there's about a credit card's width between the two groups.  And given that the "scientist" who conducted this "study" had a preconception going in - that atheists are more "evolved" than the religious - who's to doubt his "findings"?  [/sarcasm]

As Vox Day ably demonstrated in his excellent book The Irrational Atheist, which I reviewed shortly after it came out, atheists are not only NOT smarter than believers, but also tend to overestimate their own intelligence.  It is not unusual for an atheist of slightly above-average intelligence (IQ in the 115-120 range) to consider themselves highly intelligent.

Not to rub anyone's nose in it, but this libertarian Christian with a Mensa-eligible IQ of over 140 (tested) isn't impressed nor swayed by this idiotic excuse for "science".

Atheists aren't smarter than believers.  They're just more annoying.

RGD: A scary look at what awaits

Anyone who has read this blog for more than 5 minutes knows that I have a great deal of respect – nay, admiration – for Vox Day. It was Vox Day, after all, who opened my eyes to the realities of American politics, which made my eventual conversion from "conservative" to libertarian possible.

I read his previous book, The Irrational Atheist, back in 2008. It was because of that exceptional book that I decided to take a chance on The Return of the Great Depression, notwithstanding my lack of economic knowledge.

The book is eminently readable, even for those lacking economics training. Vox was able to describe the economic mess in which we find ourselves, the steps that got us into that mess in the first place, and the likelihood that the steps currently being taken by our ruling class will exacerbate the situation, in terminology that wasn’t overwhelming. This book is understandable by ANYONE, regardless of economic background, prior study, or existing expertise. I consider this to be quite an accomplishment on Vox's part.

Some parts of the book were true eye-openers. Call me economically naïve, but I had NO idea that our economy was such a house of cards, the “cards” being our dependence on the issuance of new debt. Just as a shark cannot survive unless it is moving forward, our economy will collapse without the issuance of new debt. It finally made sense to me why the government bailed out the financial institutions in 2008, and why they made some of the other counter-intuitive decisions of the past two years.

Vox takes aim at the “blue skys and sunshine” financial “analysts” (read: stock pimps) that host the various investment shows. He points out the logical fallacies in their reasoning and explains why their pie-in-the-sky predictions for a short recession are way off the mark.

I came away from reading this book extremely concerned for the future. I am convinced that Vox is 100% right when he asserts that the path Keynesian economists are recommending will only make the economic contraction worse and will result in a lot of unnecessary pain for ordinary Americans.

This is a book I would heartily recommend to anyone concerned about our economic future.

The Irrational Atheist

As I promised, WAY back on January 28th, I am reviewing Vox Day's excellent book, The Irrational Atheist.

To those reading this review, in the interest of full disclosure, I have been a reader of Vox Day's WorldNetDaily.com weekly column for over 6 years and an avid reader (if extremely infrequent comment contributer) to his blog. I am also a Christian, one whose hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the first of Mr. Day's books I've had the pleasure to read. I hope to have the opportunity to read many more. The book is extraordinarily well written. Vox has an amazing ability to dissect fallacious reasoning and a BS detector that makes mine look positively minor league.

The book's arguments are well-formed and well-presented. The scope of his research is impressive. No, make that IMPRESSIVE. For example, in his evisceration of the fallacy that more wars have been fought in the name of Religion that any other reason, he did a statistical breakdown of all recorded wars that was amazingly complete and left little wiggle room for the atheists. No, make that NO wiggle room. The overwhelming evidence was that wars are fought for political ideology, for greed, for the pursuit of power, but are seldom fought due to the influence of or in the name of religion.

He dealt harsh verbal blows to each of the Four Horsemen of the Bukkakelypse, but reserved his best work for the feeblest of the "brights", Sam Harris, a man whose contribution to the debate is to claim that one is better off being raped than being raised a Christian. Come to think of it, Vox was WAY too lenient with that asshat. But, lest you think the book was nothing but a slam-fest, he spoke quite highly of another of the major atheists, Daniel Dennett, whom he describes as "a respectable intellectual".

My personal favorite chapter was Chapter 15 (Master Of Puppets Or Game Designer?). This is an absolute must-read for new Christians. It does the best job of any explanation of the "omniscience vs. omnipotence" question that I've read, whether written by clergy or by lay person.

While some reviewers have found the tone of the book to be "un-Christian", I fell on the other side of that coin; I thought that Vox was a little too NICE in his treatment of the unholy atheist trinity of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris (okay, maybe calling Harris a bumbler isn't the nicest thing...but considering the course of action recommended by Mr. Harris -- preemptive murder of people with" dangerous beliefs" -- MUCH nicer than I could have mustered).

One reviewer on WorldNetDaily was shocked and saddened after reading the book, because

[Vox']s claim to be a believer is belied by his use, even at times glorification of, at least 14 types of terms for sick, vile and disgusting sexual perversions (some of which I had to research to find out what they meant, and which turned my stomach when I did), five mentions of grossly immoral and/or irresponsibly behavior, five slang references to body parts let's just say which are below the beltline (yep, you guessed them!), three mentions of crude bodily functions, (to be exotic, one is even in German, and again, yes, those are the ones you're thinking of), and five vulgar and/or crass nicknames for women.

I have a succinct two word reply for this person: bite me. Have you taken a good look around at the world in which we live? Do you not see the manner in which common people (read: people who don't have a stick up their ass) communicate? By utilizing the lengua franca of the times in which we live, Vox actually enhances his positions. Had he been stuffy and full of himself (like you, sir, seem to be), the book would have been a crushing disappointment.

Well done, Vox. You had a fastball in your wheelhouse and you crushed it.