Most of my life decisions would lead a person to believe I’m a big dummy. And I feel like a dummy most of the time.

I suspect we all just make different mistakes. But we believe that we have logical reasons for making them!!

I have found no evidence that God exists and have found exculpatory evidence that God does not exist as depicted in the majority of the worlds religions. God may or may not exist and its only through death we will be able to tell if there is a afterlife or a God or nothingness. All humans will discover the truth one day as required and anything that until then is nothing more than speculation.

To my way of seeing it We, Atheists, etc, used our reasoning minds to fathom out truth from fiction, fact from fallacy and have become wiser for it.
Whereas there ARE intelligent peoples among the 'believers' they seem more than happy to merely close off their reasoning minds and accept without question or doubt what they have been told as being 'truth.'
As once was said, " The wise person NEVER ceases to question, research and learn, that is what makes him/her wise and intelligent."- Author Unknown at present.

Intelligence is not necessarily related to religion or the lack of. Of course I could be wrong but..... I don't really care about religion or beliefs in any shape or form anyway. Does that make me more intelligent? Nope... other things might... and then again.... or not.

Of course I agree with that. I myself am a case in point.
It doesn't take "intelligence" to figure out Christianity is a fabrication. All you have to dig just a little below the surface brainwashing, with an open mind, and voila! You're there.
WHY some people are able to do that and others are not...it's easy to come up with a list of plausible reasons. I doubt it requires even AVERAGE intelligence.
Other than that, there's no difference between believers and non-believers, except at least non-believers get the one basic premise right, so they build their logic upon that firm foundation. From there, though, faulty assumptions, false seconday premises, whatever due to, as you say, stereotypes, sloppy thinking, upbringing, socializations (peer pressure), you name it, can affect conclusions.
We all do that.

Well, I don't know how it goes in the US but, in Europe, there's no discrimination in general. Some countries have a non-religious majority (I think in Sweden are mostly atheists). I'm Portuguese (mainly Catholic) and I live in Ireland (Catholic by tradition but people are turning their backs to the Church mainly due to the paedophilia scandals that rocked the nation). Still I can say out loud that I don't believe in God that people will accept easily.

Oh yeah for sure! Going on the attack when presented a difference of opinion seems the popular mode in current culture. Unfortunately it's infiltrated this site as well.

i do agree with you. what i find really hard to deal with is someone i know to be very intelligent beleving or even worse turning too this Religious bullshit. i do think theres something stupid in believing in something with not one shred of evidance and so many things that just don't add up at all.

Agree. Just experience some of the interaction here. As I've said before some people here are just mad at god, which has nothing to do with not believing in it.

Agree honey more tolerant also

The most intelligent man in the world is a bouncer and a believer. The smartest people usually end up working for people way dumber than themselves, if for no reason other than they are more outgoing. Intelligence and economic success do not correlate strongly.

I agree with your post. We are more intelligent than believers, since are more willing to learn and don't settle for what it says in the book of fairy tales. Our group is still a work in progress, because our journey of enlightenment doesn't end day we reject religious/god.

Agree. You don't need to be a genius to figure out that the god myths are just that. Which is good.

That said there are some very intelligent believers walking about, too.

the bell curve still applies

Agree. Most folks, including atheists and myself are of average intelligence. People need to get over themselves. We think differently than theists on one subject. That does not make us smarter.

It is a fact that atheists are smarter than religious people, research has proven that: [indy100.com]

I have found what you say to be true. Just because a person has pondered the existence of a supreme being and rejected that theory, does not necessarily indicate a positive correlation with a higher level of intelligence.

I think it's like anything; there's a spectrum. We are more intelligent than some believers, and some believers are more intelligent - in terms of intellectual ability - than many of us. The distinction is our ability to apply critical thinking and rationality, and require data/evidence, on supernatural claims like this. In that sense we are smarter. No matter anyone's IQ, if they apply faith - the purposeful suspension of critical thinking - to things which defy the KNOWN laws of physics and quantum mechanics, they are ignoring the reality that there is zero actual evidence. That they can't "know" about their god. And yet they actually insist they do. Well, we may be wrong too (I'd still like to know how the universe got started), but we're smart enough to know they can't "know", and they aren't. Or at least won't admit it. IQ's aside, this is the only way we're known to be smarter in my view.

I have never found evidence or actions proving the existence of any god (lower case). Man made god, not the other way around.

It continues to be a lesson in humanity ..attempting to decipher by reading personal admissions and descriptions.. as to why those around here do or do not believe anything.

There are the intellectuals, having concluded correctly that humans are acting on myths and desires. They are a treat! Their minds are active, their thoughts and descriptions clear, and their interests varied. Gotta love em

There are the misfits. With serious streaks of antisocial behavior, they appear to militantly reject ..about everything. They’ll argue water’s not wet ...if it garners attention, any attention.. Sure, they’ve concluded religion’s BS, then unjustifiably assume everything is

There’s a balanced group of seekers, too. Going through life with eyes open. No agenda, beyond the betterment of humanity for their having been a part. They’re wonderful. Often the most tolerant; though engaged, they give me hope. They’re the ones I’d want on the witness stand - pure honesty. They’re why I’m here

I am never a fan of painting an entire group of people as one trait....so to say that atheists/agnostics are ALL more intelligent is a fallacy.

That being said I think most of us do demonstrate a certain degree of logic and free thinking, but just like any other group, religious or otherwise, we don’t ALL fit that description.

Agree totally. There are some brilliant religious minds such as Jonathon Sacks and Rowan Williams or non-religion with Richard Dawkins and Steven Hawking. Content is irrelevant. Pushing boundaries and asking ‘what if’ is beyond political, religious or social discourse or any other discussion for that matter.

I believe this site attracts the thoughtful agnostics and atheists, not just those that have no faith but haven’t thought it through philosophically. On the whole, those with no faith in the world may not be more intelligent, but I think the members of this site have an above average intelligence

I noticed a while back that Christian religions all share some specific traits, such as elitism, inter-fighting, high expectations that are beyond human capability, and so forth. As I drew away from my Christian beliefs, I let go of these types of issues in my own life. I eventually formed a hypothesis, that those traits come from believing in a savior. In other words, if you need to believe in a God who will save you from who you are and what you are in this life, then there's a certain set of beliefs that come along with that.

I would imagine that there are traits that follow atheism and agnosticism as well. I don't know what those would be yet. Maybe as I continue to interact with people here I'll be able to figure it out.