The transmission path alone makes this hilarious to cite...
Uberblogger, psychologist, and atheist John Ray quotes atheist philosopher Keith Burgess Jackson undermining the left thusly:
In my discipline, philosophy, there are as many theists as there are atheists. The ratio of atheists to theists may be higher among philosophers than among people generally, but if the hypothesis of stupidity is correct, shouldn’t the ratio be extraordinarily high in a field such as philosophy, which attracts people of such impressive intelligence? Shouldn’t it be extremely unusual to find a theist in a philosophy department? I can assure you that it’s not. Many of the best philosophers in the world today are theists... They work not just in philosophy of religion but in epistemology and metaphysics. They are as hard-headed, rigorous, and intellectually demanding as anyone, anywhere, in any field.
Liberals are going to have to face the fact that religious belief is independent of intelligence. It is a function of other things, such as upbringing. I believe the same is true of conservatism. If someone has evidence to the contrary, please bring it to my attention. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to stop the name-calling.
Indeed. Physics has a similar trend, though more diverse in flavor of religious conviction.
I know a few atheists who are smarter than I. And a few theists too. But the vast bulk of atheists I meet and debate... well, let's just say they don't impressa-me much. (Not that most theists I know don't also fall towards the middle of the curve... but they're seldom busy telling me how amazingly brilliant they are.)
It seems to me one of the problems facing atheism to day -- if it even makes sense to speak of it as a movement (may as well talk about a herd of cats) -- are that a lot of people (prounded "leftists") who are insecure about their level of intelligence attempt to show people how smart they are by declaring themselves atheists. The term "freethinker", which I consider highly ironic, springs to mind.
This is about as principled as becoming Jewish to rake in the gifts with a bar mitzvah. Or -- as Jerry Seinfeld jested -- to expand your comedy repertoire by now being able to tell Jewish ethnic jokes.
As a ego-inflating mechanism, I suspect this works well. You instantly identify a huge group of people (most the population, in fact) who you can confidently assert are stupider than you. You are now no longer near the bottom of the pile! You are a member of the elite!
And you also have a ready-made group of mockers to join with you in discussing how much smarter you are based on your newly-chosen belief system. Add in some oh-so-caring leftist political convictions, and you've got a delicious, intoxicating, self-affirming double-whammy smugness martini. On the rocks.
(Note, I'm not saying atheists are smug. I'm say there are people who profess atheism as a cover for their insecurities, and thus end up engaging in these kinds of behavior. Likewise, there are also a small number of Christians who are holier-than-thou. But I suspect this venue for self-aggrandizement is somewhat less attractive, given how profoundly ego-correcting direct exposure to Jesus's teachings can be and how deeply uncool Christianity is portrayed as. Thank God.)
I'm reminded of one fellow I found making fun of George Bush's alleged low intelligence. He did so by also cruelly mocking retarded people in general (indicating he was insecure in his own intelligence and needed to put others down in that area to elevate himself). He also displayed a "No Sheep" icon on his post (indicating he feared being one, and thus probably was), and sporting a link proudly announcing he was a "freethinker."
He also badly mispelled many, many simple words.
Which was especially funny because his joke revolved around the idea that retarded people mispell simple words.
Was this person a living caricature? Sure. But he is also the tip of an iceberg. A great, harmful, intolerant and sadly, sometimes unintelligent iceberg.