I  think this makes for 3 psychologists in this thread alone, interesting that people who specialize in studying and understanding self awareness and thought disorders would be atheists....

It would be interesting to see the percentage of psychologists that are theists. 

Some personal stats:

IQ: 140

SAT: 1390, 97th percentile

Highschool = 3 years, 2.7 gpa

A.S. no 1 = 3 years, philosophy, honors, phi theta kappa

A.S. no 2 = 14 months, culinary, honors

Bachelor's = pending.

Though I am clearly not as thoroughly educated as some of my contemporaries, I consider myself something of an autodidact, and spend much of my free time in a book. I love learning, and am definately a well-informed intelectual. I would assume that you are correct in your assertion, Larry -- atheists are likely the most educated group in the country, if not, the world.

Logos Invictus,

--Louis Repucci

I have my leaving cert (whoo dee doo), taking a further education course to get into 'proper' college (I was 12 marks off (3%) in one test (geography) from directly getting a college, ugh). So far it looks like I'm going to be successful (In other words, I will have to actively work hard -not- to get at least a merit in all modules), hopefully I can advance as far as possible up the ladder so not only would I be more tempting to employ, but I'll maybe be able to contribute to the videogame industry. I value the educations muchly!

What do you play? 

I did great in high school, but failed to take college seriously enough to stay for long. 

Although I don't have much formal education beyond high school, I've always had a passion for knowledge and make it a point to learn something new every day. 

Working towards a BA in Communications     

Already have a BS in religion

I go to your school x-D

 Um I'm a junior and so not too far from a bachelor's in forensic science (going the forensic biology route or whatnot) and sooner than later I'm going to try to get into med school and get 4 yrs. od pre-med but eventually I'm going for becoming a forensic pathologist. 

I'm smart wooooooooooooooo .  

B.S. in computer science - considering re enrolling to finish the math degree (I graduated with the CS degree, but didn't finish the math degree (only 12 credits to go there, but that would have meant an extra 3 part-time semesters because of the way the courses were scheduled))

I have a B.A. in English Literature, and unwittingly got a minor in Psychology.      

I have 3 years of university. I was working towards a degree in "Geology with a concentration in vertabrate palaeontology and palaeoecology" (Which primarily includes courses in Geology, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) However, I also took courses in Religion, Anthropology (I highly recommend this course if anybody here goes to Carleton University, especially if you get the same prof that I had), and Astronomy. However I quit university when I found out that I could become a commercial pilot, despite the fact I wear glasses (I also wasn't fond of the idea of writting papers for the rest of my life, I'm just too much of a hands-on type of guy).

While I absolutely love flying, there is much I miss about university (although I definately don't miss my stats class), so I try to stay as educated as possible in the fields that I'm interested in (namely Palaeontology and Astronomy).

 By the way LeftofLarry, I like your thesis topic, sounds pretty cool.

high school graduate with one year of college, no degree. usual story, became a parent at a young age, working full time, can't give college studies the time they require or deserve. but i'm fine, solid job in medical records, enough money to pay the bills and be comfortable.

i seem to learn more and retain more knowledge from my own reading interests; sam harris, richard dawkins, chris mooney, al franken, etc. i read more now than i ever did in school, and i'm more politically involved, as well.

Currently a sophmore History Major (european emphasis) with a dobule minor medieval studies and museum studies. I've wanted to get a PhD since I knew what one was, so thats what I'm going for.  It was actually my one of my history classes "medieval philosophy" that helped push me over the edge. The fact that some people spend their entire lives as an apologist trying to find little backdoor ways to make Aristotle fit with the christian church just proves to me that they obviously don't agree.  If they were in harmony, you wouldn't have to act like a sneaky lawyer finding the loop hole to make it so.  All the ridiculous claims and "proofs" of god's existence, it just pushed me over the edge.  But yeah, it's kinda obvious that an atheist would be more educated, if not more intelligent at least.

 Well, I'll compare that a little to Dungeons and Dragons.  You can always have a high Intelligence stat (used for knowledge, reasoning, etc.) but have a low Wisdom stat (used for perception, common sense, etc.).  So while your wizard could know the history of the world, and a repitore of arcane spells, he could be out of touch of reality.  Then again, in D&D you can meet the gods, and see the result of their existance through spells and such...  Man, I'm such a geek.

 Uh... anyway I'm just out of highschool.  I'm almost 1 year through a community college, majoring in interactive media and design.  I plan to transfer over to a 4 year university afterwards, hopefully to major in 3D animation.  My dream job would be to create 3D models for movies (like Shrek), or for video games.

Why yes you are a geek. 

But honestly that is presupposing that of belief in God is delusional (which there is no emphatically data to prove. 

Ok cslewisster, take the question and reverse it, it might make it more apparent. How many uneducated people are theists? The answer: most of them.  The majority of the world's population is made up of theists, while only a small percentage of the world's population is educated. The majority of the world's atheist population happens to fall within that small percentage of the population that is educated. I'm not calling you stupid, but i'm just saying that a lot of the people who become atheist do so because while at college they learn to better use their rational faculties to analyze what they have been spoon fed as absolute truth since childhood.

Is the data trying to REALLLLLY prove something.....or did you just mis-type empirical....I'm hoping for the second one...and that is not a presupposition, it's an observation. 

 Yes I meant empirical. 

Honeslty it's a stupid "observation" that has no basis in reality. 

I have a Bachelors of Science degree in Game Development. (Computer Science)

I would say I agree with your first statement. The Danish population, like the Swedish, is largely secular and of course we follow the Bell Curve. I have met wonderfully intelligent theists and woefully ignorant atheists. Religion here is not pervasive nor is it regarded as the norm, thus atheists are not generally viewed as "falling short" of any standard. Our intellectual capacities can therefore be judged by their own merit.

I will, however, take the liberty to divide atheists into two groups: Those who never had a religion (mentioned above) and those who have had one, but have lost it.

You seem to be well versed in statistics. I wil make the following statement:

People loose their religion by applying critical thinking to it. This can be done by anyone, but is more likely to be done by an educated person.

Therefore, no matter how small the latter group is, when you combine the two, you will end up with a group that is, however slightly, more educated than the general public, even on a world wide scale.

I think I covered your first claim earlier. Yes, of course the majority of the worlds "born" atheists will tend to be just as dumb and/or smart as the worlds theists. But the people who have shed religion is another matter.

However, I cannot let your last two claims slip by unnoticed. You say that North Korea is reported to be a 100% atheist nation. Kudos for your honesty - many Theists will omit the word "reported". Any report from a despot regime like that is unlikely to be true.

The truth is that North Korea is 100% Theistic. Their religion is called "Korean Communism" (or "Juche&quot and their Deity is called Kim Il-sung - reborn in his son Kim Jong-il. The North Korean authorities claim a number of supernatural incidents to have occured around the time of Kim Il-sung's birth and at other times during his life. They claim that he had the power to personally supervise all aspects of North Korean Life, down to the smallest detail. They claim that he wielded supernatural powers.

Obviously, you will view these claims as ridiculous, as will I. But they certainly are not Atheistic in nature.

Finally, you mention the former Russian countries as examples of undereducated Atheists (and use their contribution to the pool of statistic material to make your final claim - that " a majority of the worlds Atheist population [...] is undereducated".)

Let it suffice to say that the majority of people in the former Sovjet Republics (not Russian countries, but your misnomer was so common during the cold war in the west, that we need not make any more of it) are hugely superstitious and overwhelmingly religious. But do not take my word for it. Try googling Belarus, Ukraine, Moldava, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajkistan and see how many atheist websites, how many atheist claims of superiority of the regions you can come up with.

Looking forward to a fruitful exchange of opinions.

I had figured that this might happen .

Now I might be stretching here a bit but, isn’t it possible that when someone "converts" to Christianity the same claim can be made about their choice. Though they may take the proverbial leap of faith (which I'd say even Atheists have to make though it does not deal with faith but is simply leaping), once they've made their choice it is most likely that they will educate themselves and find more out about what they now choose to believe. I myself could separate Christians into two very distinct groups the educated and the un-educated but I don’t believe that this would fly very well because then I would be accused of weeding out the stupid Christians, which I really wish I could.

"Take every internet source (except for those written by experts on their college web space) with a grain of salt" is a nice succinct saying I like to live by.

If you have any links or references to these claims I'd be very interested in exploring this further.

I never made the claim that the countries in question were highly atheistic, friend When I had written that I knew if one was to take most of the former Soviet Unions Atheist population (which seem to be about 10-20% for most countries) you would account for a majority of the worlds Atheists and that one could make the outright claim were uneducated.  I was simply crunching numbers quickly from countries that I knew one could not make the claim were educated by any stretch of the imagination. (The Czech Republic has 53% of people apparently mark that they do not believe in a God). My point was to only make the claim that (contrary to popular belief) all atheists are not the brilliant Renaissance Men of old. In fact I’d say (once again including the atheists that are either born or indifferent) that like the majority of Theists, the majority of Atheists are not educated and not intelligent and I would bet that if there were a proper poll take we would see that the Bell still applies.

One last thing, I would also like to point out that you seem to equate superstition with belief in God. I don’t think that the two are the same. Sam Harris is a bit of a mystic, but that doesn’t make him a believer in God. I don’t believe you can equate the two.

Me too, it feels good to just talk and not have to feel like you’re going to belittle me for my belief in God.

 Blessings,

Matt 

Responding to the original post.

 Im self-educated.

All of my life I have been learning philosophy, theology, biology, and my latest... Physics...

Right now im watching all of the lectures a berkely physics course.  The best part about it is the math!  I leterally sit on the edge of my seat watching the professor show how e=mc2 is a much more accurate formula for KE=1/2mv2.  Facinating shit! 

I love physics so insanely much, that I'm actually trying to teach myself math.  If anyone has any links for algebra 1&2, pre calc, and calc. I would greatly appreciate it.(all of the math sites online seem to really suck)

Thank you! A pleasure to be here.