Well .... it's an intriguing hypothesis, and though I usually have knee-jerk 'yes' responses to anything evolutionary, could it simply be that more intelligent people think more, therefore more likely to have thoughts out of the main-stream?
Also, it's quite a stretch to associate conservative with religion over even a short time and space. Religion & liberalism are often tied together - in Australia, for instance, where the % of religious people is very low, but those who are religious are into social justice. Know a visitor from Australia who was puzzled by the religion-conservative link in the US. Perhaps being "religious" there is a "novel idea". There is so much diversity under the terms "conservative" and "religious" as to make the claims superficial. Just a few examples: What passes for conservative today in the US (very ideological) bears little resemblance to what "conservative" was to the founder of modern conservatism (Edmund Burke) whose "conservatism" took the form of criticizing mob rule after the French Revolution (as well as its ideological thinking) (no doubt HE was intelligent and was simply going against the zeitgeist?). The same can be said of religion, to lump the tremendous variety, from orthodox liturgical practices to the highly individualistic practices of some christian churches, not to mention the interesting practice of lumping wild sex into religious practices (Rasputin tied his spiritual/ Russian Orthodox beliefs to some great parties I hear). Religiously conservative black churches in the US are sometimes hot beds of social liberal activism. And Catholic 'liberation theology' is radically left and socialistic. What is the common thread between all these things? Having a solid operational definition of these terms would help (there are some, not sure they are universally accepted). I suspect it is easier operationalizing spirituality that religiosity and atheism. No doubt we can empirically get "average" data for these terms, but statisticians sometimes remind us that averages can be applied inappropriately, as when we correctly say that the average American has one testicle and one ovary :-) ========================== John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 ==================================================================== Religion without science is blind; science without religion is lame - A. Einstein ==================================================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: sbl...@ubishops.ca To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 1:28:01 PM Subject: Re: [tips] Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent On 26 Feb 2010 at 12:32, Rick Froman wrote: > Next study...Is there a negative correlation between critical thinking and > intelligence or do people just > have great difficulty (no doubt due to some evolutionary mechanism) thinking > critically about things they > are predisposed to agree with? Hey, don't blame the messenger. I just report the news. Naturally, those who are liberal, atheist, and monogamous might find some joy in it. But the main point seems to be empirical. What is it about the reported finding, as opposed to its interpretation, which should invite challenge through critical thinking? Anyway, even-(Stephen) handedness being my middle name, I would have reported the results even had they turned against those misguided liberal-atheist-monogamists. The findings would be provocative either way. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: ku...@mail.plymouth.edu. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66454&n=T&l=tips&o=909 or send a blank email to leave-909-13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=914 or send a blank email to leave-914-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
