Atheists increasingly uneducated...

[koshergrl]

A lot of things being conveniently left out here. A link to the article would have been nice, but that would expose the disingenuous claim of the OP. This isn't a study of education and atheism, as your title falsely claims, it's a measure of educational levels compared with attendance to religious institutions. There's a big difference.

Good heavens, I did link the article...where'd it go? I must have accidentally cut it?

Inequality Grows As Poor, Ignorant Atheists Swamp US | Via Meadia

 

[koshergrl]

The study that was conducted pertains to attendance of religious services, not to theism versus atheism. The author of the article assumes that people who don't attend religious services are atheists. This is a logically untenable argument because there are plenty of people who do not attend religious services that still believe in a deity. In fact some of the most adamant Christians I know never attend religious services. Besides, the article is very poorly written and rife with grammatical folly, and the author clearly has an agenda. Nice try though.

that's why they call them *opinion pieces*

Oh wow, you got me good there. Doesn't change the fact that the author's opinion is worth shit when the actual study is considered. The author should probably keep his opinion to himself until he can demonstrate an elementary understanding of english grammar and some basic reading comprehension skills.

Like you?

"E"nglish.

Snicker.

 

[koshergrl]

I would like the grammatical errors pointed out. I don't see any in the bit that I quoted...

 

[Cecilie1200]

"Less-educated Americans turning their backs on religion
LAS VEGAS — While religious service attendance has decreased for all white Americans since the early 1970s, the rate of decline has been more than twice as high for those without college degrees compared to those who graduated from college, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Our study suggests that the less educated are dropping out of the American religious sector, similarly to the way in which they have dropped out of the American labor market," said lead researcher W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.

The study focuses on whites because black and Latino religiosity is less divided by education and income. Most whites who report a religious affiliation are Catholics, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Mormons, or Jews."

.....

""The least educated have been consistently less religiously engaged than even the moderately educated, meaning the gap between the least educated and most educated is even larger than the one between the moderately educated and most educated," Wilcox said."

Not to sound ignorant what is the difference between the two?

As far as I can tell, this terminology is primarily an intellectualist construct. The division being delineated appears to be between Christians who actually believe the Bible and put a lot of interest and effort into following its teachings, and Christians who mostly attend church to feel religious, but don't want to be fanatical about the whole "belief" thing.

Understandably, Protestant circles have their own terms for these things.

 

[koshergrl]

Evangelical Protestants:
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s[1] and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.

Its key commitments are:

The need for personal conversion (or being "born again")
Actively expressing and sharing the gospel
A high regard for biblical authority, especially biblical inerrancy
An emphasis on teachings that proclaim the saving death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.[2]
David Bebbington has termed these four distinctive aspects conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism, noting, "Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism."[3]

Evangelicalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mainline Protestantism:
"Mainline Protestant (also sometimes called mainstream[1]) denominations are those Protestant churches that comprised the vast majority of American Christians from the colonial era until the early 20th century. Most of these denominations were brought to America by their respective historic immigrant groups.[2] Many of these immigrants quickly became affluent and settled, by the time the term "mainline" became attributed to them, in the wealthier suburbs of large Northeastern and Midwestern urban areas. The origins of the term "mainline" lie in this fact, the term is itself borrowed from the "Philadelphia Main Line", a group of affluent inner suburbs of Philadelphia, settled along the Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line. A large portion of the inhabitants of this area belonged to what are now considered "mainline" denominations.[3] Today, most mainline protestants remain rooted in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.

As a group they have maintained theologies that stress social justice concerns together with personal salvation and evangelism.[4] They have been credited with leading the fight for social causes such as racial justice and civil rights, equality for women, rights for the disabled and other key issues. Many of the issues that such groups have advocated for have been embraced by American law and society, but at the same time mainline denominations have been somewhat marginalized.[5] In addition, mainline churches and laity founded most of the leading educational institutes in the US.[6]

Mainline denominations peaked in membership in the 1950s and have declined steadily in the last half century. From 1960 to 1988, mainline church membership declined from 31 million to 25 million, then fell to 21 million in 2005.[7][8] Today, they are a minority among American Protestants, claiming approximately 15 percent of American adults among their adherents.[9]

In typical usage, the term mainline is contrasted with evangelical. Mainline churches tend to be more liberal in terms of theology and political issues.[10] This places them to the ideological left of the evangelical and fundamentalist churches."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainline_(Protestant)

Evangelicals are sort of right wing....
Mainline Protestants are sort of liberal...."social justice" is the giveaway. There's no social justice preached by Evangelical preachers. Social justice is code for socialism.

 

[SmarterThanHick]

So if we ignore all minorities, and then twist the original biased conclusion, while covering our left eye and tilting the head just slightly left, then we can generalize the outcome to jump to the conclusion that atheists are dumb.

Glad we got that taken care of.

 

[Dr.Drock]

Nature, "Leading scientists still reject God"* July 23, 1998

Our chosen group of "greater" scientists were members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Our survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality). Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys appear in Table 1.


Table 1 Comparison of survey answers among "greater" scientists
Belief in personal God 1914 1933 1998
Personal belief 27.7 15 7.0
Personal disbelief 52.7 68 72.2
Doubt or agnosticism 20.9 17 20.8




IDIOTS!!!!

 

[koshergrl]

That has nothing to do with anything. That group are atheists...that doesn't change the fact that atheists are increasingly uneducated and ignorant.

I see it online all the time. Drop outs, jobless, mentally ill losers with no education to speak of who strut around crowing about how stupid religion is and how ignorant believers are.

So what is your level of education, "Dr"?

 

[Dr.Drock]

That has nothing to do with anything. That group are atheists...that doesn't change the fact that atheists are increasingly uneducated and ignorant.

I see it online all the time. Drop outs, jobless, mentally ill losers with no education to speak of who strut around crowing about how stupid religion is and how ignorant believers are.

So what is your level of education, "Dr"?

Yes, has a lot to do with it. Says generally the smartest people in soceity aren't believers.

I see it all the time with people of all religious views, atheists/christians/everyone. Look at Texas and other areas of the Bible thumping south and find their high school graduation rates, you won't like it. But in general education is in decline in america and has been for awhile.

I have an MBA and degree in finance. So no I'm not a doctor, that's a nickname, but I was a non-believer long before I went to college.

 

[koshergrl]

No, it says that specific group of people are non-believers.

The smartest people in society, and down through the ages, have traditionally been believers.

As have been the most successful people in society.

 

[Two Thumbs]

"Less-educated Americans turning their backs on religion
LAS VEGAS — While religious service attendance has decreased for all white Americans since the early 1970s, the rate of decline has been more than twice as high for those without college degrees compared to those who graduated from college, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Our study suggests that the less educated are dropping out of the American religious sector, similarly to the way in which they have dropped out of the American labor market," said lead researcher W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.

The study focuses on whites because black and Latino religiosity is less divided by education and income. Most whites who report a religious affiliation are Catholics, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Mormons, or Jews."

.....

Inequality Grows As Poor, Ignorant Atheists Swamp US | Via Meadia

""The least educated have been consistently less religiously engaged than even the moderately educated, meaning the gap between the least educated and most educated is even larger than the one between the moderately educated and most educated," Wilcox said."

Books are heavy and passe.

Why read a book when you can go online and kill alien zombies all day long?

 

[Dr.Drock]

No, it says that specific group of people are non-believers.

The smartest people in society, and down through the ages, have traditionally been believers.

As have been the most successful people in society.

That specific group being scientists, scientists with many different backgrounds and mathematicians.

I have studies backing what I say, can I see a study backing what you say that "the smartest and most successful people in society are believers?"

Being a believer doesn't make someone dumb, but not many people in the scientific fields are going to be able to listen to someone say "read this book that says snakes can talk, people can survive inside whales, and one time this guy built a ship with T-Rex's and moo cows on it and sailed around" and then be told to take everything in the book as fact, including whether or not a god exists.

 

[Two Thumbs]

No, it says that specific group of people are non-believers.

The smartest people in society, and down through the ages, have traditionally been believers.

As have been the most successful people in society.

That specific group being scientists, scientists with many different backgrounds and mathematicians.

I have studies backing what I say, can I see a study backing what you say that "the smartest and most successful people in society are believers?"

Being a believer doesn't make someone dumb, but not many people in the scientific fields are going to be able to listen to someone say "read this book that says snakes can talk, people can survive inside whales, and one time this guy built a ship with T-Rex's and moo cows on it and sailed around" and then be told to take everything in the book as fact, including whether or not a god exists.

Doc

Her link is about whites in general and your nit picking scientist.

she's got you homey.

Not that it's all that important beyond entertainment.

 

[Dr.Drock]

No, it says that specific group of people are non-believers.

The smartest people in society, and down through the ages, have traditionally been believers.

As have been the most successful people in society.

That specific group being scientists, scientists with many different backgrounds and mathematicians.

I have studies backing what I say, can I see a study backing what you say that "the smartest and most successful people in society are believers?"

Being a believer doesn't make someone dumb, but not many people in the scientific fields are going to be able to listen to someone say "read this book that says snakes can talk, people can survive inside whales, and one time this guy built a ship with T-Rex's and moo cows on it and sailed around" and then be told to take everything in the book as fact, including whether or not a god exists.

Doc

Her link is about whites in general and your nit picking scientist.

she's got you homey.

Not that it's all that important beyond entertainment.

No, not at all really, read all of hers posts. She's blindly trying to paint all non-believers as dumber than believers.

My point is more often than not the smartest people in society (highly educated scientists and mathematicians) are almost entirely non-believers.

Religiosity and intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 2008, intelligence researcher Helmuth Nyborg examined whether IQ relates to denomination and income, using representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, which includes intelligence tests on a representative selection of white American youth, where they have also replied to questions about religious belief. His results, published in the scientific journal Intelligence demonstrated that on average, Atheists scored 1.95 IQ points higher than Agnostics, 3.82 points higher than Liberal persuasions, and 5.89 IQ points higher than Dogmatic persuasions. [4] "I'm not saying that believing in God makes you dumber. My hypothesis is that people with a low intelligence are more easily drawn toward religions, which give answers that are certain, while people with a high intelligence are more skeptical," says the professor.[5]

Secondly, the authors investigated the link between religiosity and intelligence on a country level. Among the sample of 137 countries, only 23 (17%) had more than 20% of atheists, which constituted “virtually all... higher IQ countries.” The authors reported a correlation of 0.60 between atheism rates and level of intelligence, which is “highly statistically significant.”

 

[del]

That has nothing to do with anything. That group are atheists...that doesn't change the fact that atheists are increasingly uneducated and ignorant.

I see it online all the time. Drop outs, jobless, mentally ill losers with no education to speak of who strut around crowing about how stupid religion is and how ignorant believers are.

So what is your level of education, "Dr"?

Yes, has a lot to do with it. Says generally the smartest people in soceity aren't believers.

I see it all the time with people of all religious views, atheists/christians/everyone. Look at Texas and other areas of the Bible thumping south and find their high school graduation rates, you won't like it. But in general education is in decline in america and has been for awhile.

I have an MBA and degree in finance. So no I'm not a doctor, that's a nickname, but I was a non-believer long before I went to college.

an mba is hardly an indication of high native intelligence.

see bush, gw or any of the assorted losers i've had to work with over the past 30 years

fail, epic

 

[Dr.Drock]

That has nothing to do with anything. That group are atheists...that doesn't change the fact that atheists are increasingly uneducated and ignorant.

I see it online all the time. Drop outs, jobless, mentally ill losers with no education to speak of who strut around crowing about how stupid religion is and how ignorant believers are.

So what is your level of education, "Dr"?

Yes, has a lot to do with it. Says generally the smartest people in soceity aren't believers.

I see it all the time with people of all religious views, atheists/christians/everyone. Look at Texas and other areas of the Bible thumping south and find their high school graduation rates, you won't like it. But in general education is in decline in america and has been for awhile.

I have an MBA and degree in finance. So no I'm not a doctor, that's a nickname, but I was a non-believer long before I went to college.

an mba is hardly an indication of high native intelligence.

see bush, gw or any of the assorted losers i've had to work with over the past 30 years

fail, epic

I'm not promoting myself as an example of why non believers are so smart, I simply answered her question as to my education level. You read that wrong.

I'm certain there are believers who are smarter than me, but it's not because I'm not a believer.

 

[del]

Yes, has a lot to do with it. Says generally the smartest people in soceity aren't believers.

I see it all the time with people of all religious views, atheists/christians/everyone. Look at Texas and other areas of the Bible thumping south and find their high school graduation rates, you won't like it. But in general education is in decline in america and has been for awhile.

I have an MBA and degree in finance. So no I'm not a doctor, that's a nickname, but I was a non-believer long before I went to college.

an mba is hardly an indication of high native intelligence.

see bush, gw or any of the assorted losers i've had to work with over the past 30 years

fail, epic

I'm not promoting myself as an example of why non believers are so smart, I simply answered her question as to my education level. You read that wrong.

I'm certain there are believers who are smarter than me, but it's not because I'm not a believer.

please accept my apologies then.

 

[Dr.Drock]

an mba is hardly an indication of high native intelligence.

see bush, gw or any of the assorted losers i've had to work with over the past 30 years

fail, epic

I'm not promoting myself as an example of why non believers are so smart, I simply answered her question as to my education level. You read that wrong.

I'm certain there are believers who are smarter than me, but it's not because I'm not a believer.

please accept my apologies then.

It's all good sir.

 

[Truthmatters]

Not attending organized religions services is not a direct indication of wether someone believes in god or not.

Maybe the masses are just tired of organized religion?

 

[del]

i don't believe in organized religion; that's why i go to a unitarian church.