No, I doubt the Spanish Inquisition would have happened without religion. If you didn't know, the inquisition was a sort of mini-holocaust in Spain in the late 1400's. It essentially tortured Jews and Muslims until they converted to Christianity. Besides, atheists have been shown to have a higher IQ then theists by about 9 points, and a willingness to settle problems without violence.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(BreakfastFan): RE: "No, I doubt the Spanish Inquisition would have happened without religion." - If there was no Christianity, no Judaism, or Islam, people would still torture and kill one another because of their differences. If people aren't upset about religion, it's politics. If it's not politics, it's race. if not race, it's social status. If not social status, then it's who said what and who was there. Am I right? RE: "Besides, atheists have been shown to have a higher IQ then theists by about 9 points, and a willingness to settle problems without violence." Aside from the fact that I doubt that this is an accurate conclusion, I don't see how this point is relevant.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Dozens of different studies have found it to be true that atheists (more accuratley liberal atheists) have a IQ that is significantly higher. It's relevent because if everyone was an atheist, then the average person would be correspondingly more intelligent, which would probably mean less conflicts.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

1) Higher intelligence equals less conflict? Try again. Not relevant. 2) Okay, I am willing to believe that people who have a higher IQ maybe tend to be atheist. But in my experience people who have a higher IQ tend to be cocky and indecisive, making them unwilling to accept the idea of a higher power. Whatever the matter, it is human nature to kill and destroy. Religion is not the cause, people are.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Btw sometimes atheists are religious too. ; )

by Anonymous 13 years ago

True, Buddhists and others are both atheists and religious.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

it's not the atheism that caused a higher IQ, it was the higher IQ and inability to reason with an intangible presence that caused the atheism.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah thanks for clearing that up; I didn't mean to make it sound like becoming an atheist causes your IQ to go up or anything like that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Your whole paragraph contradicts your last sentence. You trying to put atheists in the good light associating them with higher IQs and belittling theists is rather contradictory and shady. I am pretty sure anyone can have a high IQ regardless of religion; but generally a close minded person like you shouldn't say that. Seeing as atheists don't believe in anything at all, suddenly taking advantage to put that irrelevant statement is unnecessary. That's directly proportionate to me saying "theists are smarter because they believe in things!" So your point failed to get across.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't think of myself as a closed minded person, but I won't argue with you about that. And I think that the last sentence is completely relevant to the post because it says that there would be the same amount of problems if there was no religion. The IQ part is relevant because if we lived in an all atheist or a majority atheist society, it would imply that the average IQ would be higher then what it is today. Because more intelligent people who aren't sociopaths tend to be wary of violence. But even if you don't like the last part of the comment, you have to agree with the first part. The majority of wars are either caused by the misinterpretation of religion, or the beleif in an ideology that has similar characteristics to religion (think of modern radical Muslims or how Hitler's eloquent speeches convinced millions of people to believe his insanity).

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I admit to agreeing with the first part because religion tends to drive people insane and unfortunately is reasonably power hungry. (Most religions have a mission to spread to other people of course). But war is human nature. Not ideally pleasant, but war is natural. We fight to get what we want, or "need". Now let's be realistic; I have never heard such a thing that atheists tend to have higher IQs. I have heard people with insanely high IQs tend to question what is there. If the whole world was suddenly atheistic, don't you think people will still fight for other reasons? Religion wouldn't be the problem but something else must take part in it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah I agree that war is human nature and I'm not saying that an all atheist world would be an idyllic paradise. But I do think that there would be less conflict because atheists are more rational people by defenition. Google the higher IQ thing if you want, the Toronto Star and many other studies have shown that atheists have an IQ that is statistically significantly higher then the average theist (if I remember correctly, it was by 9 points). Like I said before, most of them were talking about "liberal atheists", but the vast majority of atheists are liberal. Anyhow, I'm glad we didn't have to insult each other to get our points across like in some conversations about religon. See you around.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

you do realize that 'average' is not a very effective way to measure theists against atheists, as atheists make up a very small percentage of peoples around the world, mostly people in highly developed countries which are able to provide for better educations, while theists and religious peoples make up most of the world's peoples [all peoples who hold a belief in a higher power] both in the highly developed countries which are able offer better education and in areas where such development is nonexistent and such education cannot be provided. so an 'average IQ' is not a very proportionate way to measure a theist's intelligence against an atheist's

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Breakfastfan is just a butt-hurt atheist kid who thinks he knows about the world, but in reality he doesn't know jack.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Seriously he is such a douche.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't know, you seem a little butthurt yourself.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm going to have to agree with what's been said above. Take my closest group of friends, for example. The two atheists in the group are of the smartest of us. However, of the remaining six, three of us are equally smart. The three that aren't intellectually on the same level would bring the average down but at the end of the day more of the smart ones in our crew chose religion. So even if these studies are accurate, which is highly unlikely, it doesn't mean each individual atheist would be smarter. The Spanish Inquisition went on for many years. There are jewish families that lived for generations as 'marranos' before they were allowed to be jewish openly. When they discovered this, these families were insanely tortured and then burnt at stake. These tortures were animalistic. Anyone capable of doing something like that had to be using religion as an excuse or no one would have gone along with it. If religion wouldn't exist they would have found something else people are p...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Okay obviously you didn't read the post. Of course violence has occurred because of religion, but there can also be other reasons (like that south park episode). And I guess That whole iq study makes you feel special and superior- but if you knew anything you'd know iq tests are highly questionable and most people don't put much stock in them. And can you provide a link to this so-called study?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Did you know this is a South Park episode?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Jajaja I did not know that this was a South Park episode, but I should have. They have an episode for everything.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's a pretty good episode. You should watch it sometime. :D

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't see the need for religion. I feel that one can have beliefs without it being a way of life. And yet, I go to a Catholic school.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The "different reasons" have been resolved. If religion wasn't around the world would be a better, more peaceful place.

by Anonymous 13 years ago