An Example of Regression to the Mean

Friendly Atheist alerts us to this
well intentioned but pathetic editorial:

Some atheists are harsh in their portrayal of believers, calling God an imaginary friend. They call religion a virus, a hoax that brainwashes people. Well, the truth is, some brains need a good washing [...]

Many Christians respect the separation of church and state while others have fought to keep nativity scenes on government property and set up Christmas trees in public schools. The atheist groups want to see the pendulum move, so they gave it a big swing. One billboard shows Santa saying, “Yes Virginia … there is no God.”

That’s just mean.

Let’s see: there are billboards advertising churches all over the place. There are billboards like these:

And that is ok; we have freedom of speech here. Christians ARE entitled to recruit in a manner consistent with free speech principles (e. g., they are not entitled to a captive audience but they can do this).

But we have freedom of speech too, and it is entirely correct to reach out to those who might be like minded but feel closeted (not everyone works in a science department) or to those in the pews asking themselves “do I really believe this?” “Is believing this really virtuous in and of itself?”

Hey, there is a better way!

But as to the title of this post:

Maybe the ads are meant to mock Christians. If so, that’s unfortunate. It reinforces the stereotype that atheists are arrogant, smug people who think they are smarter than religious folks.

Well, we are, on the average, smarter than religious people. Here is why I think this:

Nyborg also co-authored a study with Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, which compared religious belief and average national IQs in 137 countries. [6] The study analysed the issue from several viewpoints. Firstly, using data from a U.S. study of 6,825 adolescents, the authors found that atheists scored 6 g-IQ points higher than those adhering to a religion.

Secondly, the authors investigated the link between religiosity and intelligence on a country level. Among the sample of 137 countries, only 23 (17%) had more than 20% of atheists, which constituted “virtually all… higher IQ countries.” The authors reported a correlation of 0.60 between atheism rates and level of intelligence, which is “highly statistically significant.” This portion of the study uses the same data set as Lynn’s work IQ and the Wealth of Nations.

Commenting on the study in The Daily Telegraph, Lynn said “Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God.” [7]

There is this too:

But don’t just take my word for the incompatibility of science and faith — it’s amply demonstrated by the high rate of atheism among scientists. While only 6% of Americans are atheists or agnostics, the figure for American scientists is 64%, according to Rice professor Elaine Howard Ecklund’s book, Science vs. Religion. Further proof: Among countries of the world, there is a strong negative relationship between their religiosity and their acceptance of evolution. Countries like Denmark and Sweden, with low belief in God, have high acceptance of evolution, while religious countries are evolution-intolerant. Out of 34 countries surveyed in a study published in Science magazine, the U.S., among the most religious, is at the bottom in accepting Darwinism: We’re No. 33, with only Turkey below us. Finally, in a 2006 Time poll a staggering 64% of Americans declared that if science disproved one of their religious beliefs, they’d reject that science in favor of their faith.

BUT it is also true that non-believers (agnostics and atheists) form just a small subset of the population and hence CAN be more exclusive (in terms of intelligence or, say, crime rates).

Were the atheist ranks to swell and become a much larger subset of the population, guess what? The average IQ for atheists would drop, the average educational level would drop and the percentage of crimes committed by atheists would go up. That’s just the law of large numbers.

True, I think that our view of reality is superior, but we really aren’t better people. We are merely a wealthier, more educated than average group in the United States. We are a numerically more exclusive group.

Just for grins, here is one of those billboards:

I’ll make a couple of remarks:

1. Many church goers sleep later than I do when I am training for an ultra.
2. There appear to be some health benefits to belonging to a church:

Would social support from joining groups such as the Rotary Club or Hospital Auxiliary show the same health benefits in longer life as going to church? The researchers discovered that this was not so when analyzing other social support and meeting attendance. However, they noted that, although substituting other clubs for church failed to help people live longer, a “complementary” effect appeared. Persons who engaged in volunteer work along with attending religious services were even more likely to live longer.

The researchers analyzed an extensive range of factors that could affect health as other explanations for why those attending religious services might live longer. These included age, sex, race, ethnic group, income, education, and employment; chronic diseases like stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses; physical functioning and driving status; health habits such as exercise, drinking, smoking, body fat, and seeking medical care; social participation, activities, marital status, health of spouse, and having confidants; and psychological status like depression and fearfulness.

“Even after controlling for six classes of potential confounding and intervening variables, we were unable to explain the protection against mortality offered by religious attendance,” the researchers concluded. Their finding supports other studies that showed attending religious services was linked with lower blood pressure, fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, less depression, and a decrease in earlier death from all causes. “A broad implication is that religious and health organizations can develop closer collaborations on health prevention campaigns. The tenfold increase in the past three years in number of medical schools offering instruction in religious and spiritual issues indicates a growing medical interest.”

I can say that churches teach techniques that can give someone peace (e. g., prayer, meditation, and some eastern religions teach yoga) and I do NOT deny the effectiveness of such practices, nor do I deny the benefits to belonging to a tightly knit group. And yes, churches (at least some churches) are one of the few places where someone challenges you to live a better life and to help others.

And if your local UU Church (which I used to belong to) were not so tolerant of woo, I’d probably still go when I could.
But nothing can bring me to say that I respect the “healing power of a crystal” or the belief that swinging a pendulum over a pill can determine whether you need the pill any more than I could say that I respect the belief that someone was born of a virgin, died, and was supernaturally brought back to life again.

But back to the recruiting: this might be a reason to recruit. Perhaps groups of atheists “who miss church but not the superstition” could meet regularly and derive some of the same benefits.

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