Atheists are Smarter Than Catholics (at least when it comes to religion)

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think agnostics are smarter than atheists.


Do you have any evidence to believe this? Or do you just take this on faith?


It's just my opinion. I only say this because both atheists and the super religious think they know for sure what happens when we die. How do they know? The agnostic doesn't claim to know what cannot be known.


Atheists do not claim to know for sure what happens when we die, whether or not there is a god etc. We merely claim that absent evidence to the contrary we will go with the most likely hypothesis, our bodies rot away and that is that.

There is no certainty about anything in this world, the question is which hypotheses are worth retaining. And as an atheist, I do not see value in retaining the god hypothesis.

In fact, studies have shown that agnostics tend to be less intelligent than the atheists. They think they have found some middle ground between believing a series of ridiculous fairy tales and not believing them. If I were to tell you that there was an invisible leprechan dancing around you just out of reach, would you say, "well, I can't know, I can't prove you wrong, so maybe you are right", or would you think that this is something I have made up that lacks any evidentiary basis and is therefore not worth worrying about?
Anonymous
You'd think the opium consumers would know more about the opium they are making.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't Catholics have a missionary culture also? Why the ignorance amongst Catholics.


Very few Catholics become missionaries, but a huge percentage of Mormon boys and an increasingly large number of Mormon girls become missionaries when they become adults.


All Mormon young adults have to spend two years as missionaries.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
All Mormon young adults have to spend two years as missionaries.


That is disgusting. So, instead of learning religious tolerance, they're being taught to strong-arm people into believing what they believe. Nice.
Anonymous
I love the Jews! They allowed my Christian son to become part of their fabulous preschool. And he's as happy as can be!

A big shout out to my reformed and conservative friends as well!

Signed,
non-practicing Catholic

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

The fact that atheists, then Jews are on top of the knowledge list didn't surprise me in the least.


Why are Jews so knowledgeable? Is it because it's so ingrained in the culture? Just curious.

And, how can people be such devout Catholics/Protestants and not know basic things about their religion?? These are people trying to convert others to their religion, but they don't even know details about that religion.


Because our mothers made us all become doctors and lawyers.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't Catholics have a missionary culture also? Why the ignorance amongst Catholics.


When I ask this, I'm thinking about countries like India. I visited there a few years ago, and there was such a huge Catholic influence. From what I understand that was due to outside influences.


That's only in the part of India that was forcibly converted by the Portugese. Pretty horrifying how they went about it, if you read the history. (Mainly in the south around Goa, Kerala, etc).
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I love the Jews! They allowed my Christian son to become part of their fabulous preschool. And he's as happy as can be!

A big shout out to my reformed and conservative friends as well!

Signed,
non-practicing Catholic

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

The fact that atheists, then Jews are on top of the knowledge list didn't surprise me in the least.


Why are Jews so knowledgeable? Is it because it's so ingrained in the culture? Just curious.

And, how can people be such devout Catholics/Protestants and not know basic things about their religion?? These are people trying to convert others to their religion, but they don't even know details about that religion.


Because our mothers made us all become doctors and lawyers.


It's Reform, not reformed
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
All Mormon young adults have to spend two years as missionaries.


That is disgusting. So, instead of learning religious tolerance, they're being taught to strong-arm people into believing what they believe. Nice.


Tolerance is a two-way street. I find it ironic that some of my most liberal friends, who find themselves so tolerant of "diversity," are so intolerant of religious believers. I myself am not terribly happy when a couple of fresh-scrubbed Mormon boys start stalking to me about their religion, but I would hardly call it strong-arming and I certainly wouldn't all it disgusting. This is just part of living in a country that supports religious diversity.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think agnostics are smarter than atheists.


Do you have any evidence to believe this? Or do you just take this on faith?


It's just my opinion. I only say this because both atheists and the super religious think they know for sure what happens when we die. How do they know? The agnostic doesn't claim to know what cannot be known.


NP. I recall reading something recently about how fundamentalist Christians and atheists have a similar psychological profile, different from agnostics. It's about their certainty about faith issues. Don't remember any details or how this conclusion was reached. Makes sense, though.
Anonymous
Yes, the more hard facts you acquire, the less likely you are to buy into fantastical concepts like angel wings; believing you were a worm in a past life; pigs are dirtier than cows and thus cannot be eaten; special underwear makes you holier; women should wear a Darth Vadar get-up to be holier; using milk in a recipe requires special plates ...


PP, can we be friends? I'm tired of being cautious about displaying my actual opinions.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:What about Buddhists?


I think the numbers of Buddhists surveyed were too low to be significant-same goes for Muslims.

Buddhists are very open to other religions, unlike most other major religions. Not saying they are necessarily knowledgeable about other religions, but they are, in general accepting of other people's beliefs. My mom's entire family is Buddhist and when she converted to Christianity as a young adult, none of them had a problem with it. In fact, they were encouraging-saying essentially, if it makes you happy, go for it!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I think it is more that if you raise your DD to be smart and well-educated she will tend to end up being an atheist. If you want your children to be religious it is probably best to keep them as ignorant and stupid as possible.


That must be why there has been such an uptick in homeschooling amongst religious Christians.


Yes, exactly. Have you ever seen "Jesus Camp"? It's frightening.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I love the Jews! They allowed my Christian son to become part of their fabulous preschool. And he's as happy as can be!

A big shout out to my reformed and conservative friends as well!

Signed,
non-practicing Catholic


OT, but which preschool is this?? We've got a bunch of Jewish preschools here in Mont County, but we're not Jewish. Can we attend any of them? I always assumed they were only for Jewish kids.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
All Mormon young adults have to spend two years as missionaries.


That is disgusting. So, instead of learning religious tolerance, they're being taught to strong-arm people into believing what they believe. Nice.


Tolerance is a two-way street. I find it ironic that some of my most liberal friends, who find themselves so tolerant of "diversity," are so intolerant of religious believers. I myself am not terribly happy when a couple of fresh-scrubbed Mormon boys start stalking to me about their religion, but I would hardly call it strong-arming and I certainly wouldn't all it disgusting. This is just part of living in a country that supports religious diversity.


I'm the one you quoted. I am tolerant of diversity. I don't care if you want to believe in Jesus/Buddha/Allah/Fruit Flies. But, I HATE missionaries. They have done some horrible things in other parts of the world.

I'm tolerant of people believing what they want. I'm tolerant of religious believers. But, I am not tolerant of people trying to change my mind by force. Or of missionaries who take advantage of poor/less fortunate people.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:


Yes, exactly. Have you ever seen "Jesus Camp"? It's frightening.

That is a good movie! We have some religious nuts in our family (the in-laws, not mine, thankfully).

My DH grew up very deeply involved in the church, and some of the stories he tells are frightening.
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