Wikipedia on atheism<\/a> lists lots of arguments for atheism. One characterisation is even flattering.<\/p>\n

According to a study by Paul Bell, published in the Mensa Magazine in 2002, there is an inverse correlation between religiosity and intelligence. Analyzing 43 studies carried out since 1927, Bell finds that all but four reported such a connection, and concludes that “the higher one’s intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious or hold ‘beliefs’ of any kind.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is that an elegant way of saying most believers are thick?<\/p>\n

Wow, I can’t find one argument that I don’t agree with (despite there being a section warning you that it may concern “weasel words”, which seems to mean unsourced generalisations like “some people think”. ) Oh no, does this make me a fundamentalist atheist? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So, this being Good Friday, I decided to look at Wikipedia’s arguments that God exists<\/a> to see if any of them would sway this apparently planet sized atheist brain.<\/p>\n

Well, no. It’s not even worth discussing them one by one. Is this the best they can do?<\/p>\n

Far from atheism emptying out the universe of meaning, it looks to me as if the major world religions have had to flatten out the infinite complexity of the workings of the universe to something like “It’s all run by someone like a big version of your dad if he was really fond of smiting (old testament versions) or really kind (new testament) or both.”<\/p>\n

Oddly, following a link from the article (via the Financial Times report) which says the French are more atheistic <\/a>than the other nationalities interviewed. Here are the results.<\/p>\n

Believers in any form of God or any type of supreme being:
\nFrance 27%
\nGreat Britain 35%
\nGermany 41%
\nSpain 48%
\nItaly 62%
\nUnited States 73%<\/p>\n

Apart from a few refusals to answer, the remainder are divided between atheists and agnostics, but I’ve lumped these together conceptually as non-believers. As far as I can see, if you’re not a “believer in any form of god or type of supreme being”, it doesn’t matter what box you tick, you don’t have faith in one.<\/p>\n

Which puts non-believers in the majority in 4 of these six countries.<\/p>\n

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    Wikipedia on atheism lists lots of arguments for atheism. One characterisation is even flattering. According to a study by Paul Bell, published in the Mensa Magazine in 2002, there is an inverse correlation between religiosity and intelligence. Analyzing 43 studies … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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