Religious belief & intelligence

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I once worked for a very wealthy successful man who happened to be Jewish, he loved to debate religion, football, anything.

A Jewish man asked me if I was Jewish last night, as he thought I displayed enough qualities to set off his, and I quote, "Jewdar". It's not the first time someone's asked me this, possibly because I am unusually self-confident, and something I took as a compliment, as I usually like Jewish people.

Are you sure it wasn't just a hint that as he'd got in three rounds running, it might be your turn next?

It was a free bar :-)

 

[Rascal]

I watched the Parliamentary debate on the persecution of Christians yesterday.

Unsuprisingly to me a good number of what you would consider bright intelligent members of parliament of all parties showed themselves to be rabid christian fundamentalists.

Fuckng scary these people get elected.

 

[DelToro]

Not intelligence as such but I don't like the whole stereotype of science against religion. ( I'm a final year student in Theoretical Physics and Maths)

I'm not "stick to the holy text" religious, but I believe in something bring out there.

What annoys me is people who call themselves scientists "disproving" God by saying that the big bang created the universe and not God.
What they fall to realise is that the big bang is just how the universe came to be as we know it now. Something had to be there for there to be a big bang.. and where did that come from?

I.e what fuelled the explosion and, what set the fuse?

There may have been something before the Big Bang but if it is proposed that this "thing" is god then it doesn't help us. It simply provokes the question who or what created god.

God is never a reasonable answer in these circumstances.

 

[Stuuuuuu]

What annoys me is people who call themselves scientists "disproving" God by saying that the big bang created the universe and not God.
What they fall to realise is that the big bang is just how the universe came to be as we know it now. Something had to be there for there to be a big bang.. and where did that come from?

I.e what fuelled the explosion and, what set the fuse?

But it would take an unintelligent person to say, "We don't know the answer, therefore: God." Science doesn't have all the answers yet, but by definition it is working on it, as opposed to making assumptions based on no evidence.<br /><br />-- Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:18 pm --<br /><br />

What annoys me is people who call themselves scientists "disproving" God by saying that the big bang created the universe and not God.
What they fall to realise is that the big bang is just how the universe came to be as we know it now. Something had to be there for there to be a big bang.. and where did that come from?

I.e what fuelled the explosion and, what set the fuse?

But it would take an unintelligent person to say, "We don't know the answer, therefore: God." Science doesn't have all the answers yet, but by definition it is working on it, as opposed to making assumptions based on no evidence.

 

[Matty]

Not intelligence as such but I don't like the whole stereotype of science against religion. ( I'm a final year student in Theoretical Physics and Maths)

I'm not "stick to the holy text" religious, but I believe in something bring out there.

What annoys me is people who call themselves scientists "disproving" God by saying that the big bang created the universe and not God.
What they fall to realise is that the big bang is just how the universe came to be as we know it now. Something had to be there for there to be a big bang.. and where did that come from?

I.e what fuelled the explosion and, what set the fuse?

There is no "before" the big bang, the idea that there is is a complete misnomer. As such the idea of a trigger, or a "cause" that occured prior to the bang itself doesn't make sense.

Consider the effect of mass on time. A planet's hefty mass warps time -- making time run a tiny bit slower for a human on Earth's surface than a satellite in orbit. The difference is too small to notice, but time even runs more slowly for someone standing next to a large boulder than it does for a person standing alone in a field. The pre-big bang singularity possessed all the mass in the universe, effectively bringing time to a standstill.

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time only came into being as that primordial singularity expanded toward its current size and shape.

As a student of theoretical physics I find it surprising that you've managed to ignore a major element of Einsteins theory of relativity and posed such a question.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Re: Religious belief & intelligence

I once worked for a very wealthy successful man who happened to be Jewish, he loved to debate religion, football, anything.

A Jewish man asked me if I was Jewish last night, as he thought I displayed enough qualities to set off his, and I quote, "Jewdar". It's not the first time someone's asked me this, possibly because I am unusually self-confident, and something I took as a compliment, as I usually like Jewish people.

Are you sure it wasn't just a hint that as he'd got in three rounds running, it might be your turn next?

Hahaha. That's brilliant. Take a bow.

 

[johnmc]

Didnt that mad US of A dude who always denounces religion send his children to a religious school due to its benefits?

Like it or not religion serves a purpose.

 

[foetus]

Didnt that mad US of A dude who always denounces religion send his children to a religious school due to its benefits?

Like it or not religion serves a purpose.

If used in the correct way...which the majority of people do. Unfortunately it gives certain crazy people a platform for greed, power, corruption, violence, hate etc

I'm sure you fit in with the majority :)

 

[johnmc]

Didnt that mad US of A dude who always denounces religion send his children to a religious school due to its benefits?

Like it or not religion serves a purpose.

If used in the correct way...which the majority of people do. Unfortunately it gives certain crazy people a platform for greed, power, corruption, violence, hate etc

I'm sure you fit in with the majority :)

Indeed. Do you think however these extremists would just be normal citizens without religion or would it just be something else they "blame" it on?

 

[foetus]

Didnt that mad US of A dude who always denounces religion send his children to a religious school due to its benefits?

Like it or not religion serves a purpose.

If used in the correct way...which the majority of people do. Unfortunately it gives certain crazy people a platform for greed, power, corruption, violence, hate etc

I'm sure you fit in with the majority :)

Indeed. Do you think however these extremists would just be normal citizens without religion or would it just be something else they "blame" it on?

I don't have an answer to that I'm afraid. One of my friends hates gays because the bible says it's wrong. Would he still hate gays if he wasn't religious?...maybe, maybe not.