No Russian novels here, just a bored southern belle this morning, bemoaning the fact that the rednecks here just think I'm cute, insane and are dying to shove a cock in my mouth to shut me up cus' I talk too much.... and think too much, in general.

Bored this morning, waiting for UPS to come and trying to take a day off for me, but the damn phone keeps ringing. I think I'm going to turn it off, go down to the basement and shoot a game of pool on my new table (:stoned ), burn a fatty and then go rape my boyfriend before all my friends cram into Club Tyger tonight.

Maybe while I'm raping him, I'll be thinking about [Labret] or then again, maybe not.... :1orglaugh

Of course you can't. If you sampled the top 1% of intelligent people in the world at this very moment, you'd have a rainbow of religious and political views. If their intellectual abilities had anything to do with either subject, then I suppose they'd all have to think/believe relatively the same thing, now wouldn't they? A better indicator would be how they justify, rationalize, support, and debate their beliefs. And if they're smart enough to recognize when there's no point in doing so. :)

Oh- and try to get a writing sample and see if they know the difference between your/you're, to/too, their/there/they're, and then/than. That's a pretty good one, too. :2 cents:

Not their general intellect, no. But you can make generalizations that fit your own personal experiences with these different types of people.

Just because a person's parents made them grow up in a strict Christian household means nothing to how (potentially) smart they are. Just that it is more likely that person will have a Christian mindset and world view.

You can probably get an idea from how beliefs are expressed and from the extent to which a person can explain why he or she holds a particular point of view. But you cannot reach any conclusions about intellectual ability from views and beliefs themselves.

My father and I are good examples. He has a high IQ and two law degrees: he is very right wing and a religious moderate. My IQ is supposedly a few points higher and I had a rather better education: my political views are predominantly left of center and I have no religious beliefs at all.

Since we have had in common an active interest in politics, debate and writing, I suspect our differences are primarily a matter of generation. At one time I would have added teenage rebellion, but unless that can be sustained for over 30 years...

I believe that the intelligence lies not in what you belief or what you practice, but rather on the ability to acknoledge that you know nothing and the only way out of it is to learn.

Nothing is absolute... it's a matter of analyzing all you can analyze and live your life according to what makes more sense to YOU.


just my two cents ;)

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

certainly a great deal can be told by the way in which they explain their reasoning for their beliefs.

I don't need to know their views to form a pretty decent and most of the time accurate opinion. I can do that from their grammar, sentence structure and how they feel about counters and conversions.

That's nothing. I performed a comma splice at the GFY party with one hand tied behind my back, you should have seen it!

I believe in your god!

50

FIDDY 1 :helpme

Deck of cards

yes, the equation is simple

intellectual ability = political views - religious beliefs

Haha. THAT'S funny :-)

Siskel sez ... :thumbsup
Ebert sez ... :thumbsup

Siskel speaks to you from the beyond???

John Edward was my mentor.

:)

absolutely "YES"

Absolutely. Since one's beliefs are most often not single points, but rather logical webs connecting numerous small points, the strenth of the web (that is, logical consistency between the different "threads", or rather relations and arguments) most certainly indicates intelligence.

Ofcourse, there are always a number of base points which were created through education, upbringing, culture, time, etc., but what one does with those gives a fairly good indication of their intelligence. In fact, I believe this to be a lot more reliable than IQ tests.

What would you conclude about the "general intelligence ability" of someone that is a pro-capital punishment, Muslim?

Can you identify any beliefs of you own that if switched would make you more intelligent?

Fuckin'-A, Colin. :1orglaugh First, you took my Anne Frank line that I wanted to post earlier today, and now you've cut me off at the knees again on this one. :BangBang:

I was going to give him the political party and denominational (or lack of) info of 3 of my friends and throw in their views on abortion and ask him to tell me which one is the Mensa member who made a 1600 on the SAT. :Graucho

Did the Republican pro-abortion friend have the 1600?

I thought this was gonna be an Arnold joke, until I saw the 1600 part. (cause you'd have to knock about half of that off)

Ahh, but who's more intelligent?
The person who joins Mensa, or the person who laughs at them and turns them down?

Not enough information.

For those who believe can get an idea of someone's general intellectual ability from one's political views or religious beliefs how can it be done? Wouldn't most people just consider those whose beliefs are most similar to theirs to be the most intelligent?

How do you consider time in the equation? Weren't many of the geniuses of yesterday slave-owners and Bible thumpers?

'geniuses of yesterday'

nuff said.

the way i like to think about religion is the idea of the 'meme'.

A meme is basically an idea that is transmitted through society and subject to the pressures of natural selection.. Those ideas that are able to adapt, propagate, crush competing memes will do well

Religion is an example of a meme, it is able to propagate (e.g. lets go convert the natives) or we'll pass the idea on to our offspring.. It is also able to adapt, for example in catholicism Hell used to be all fire and brimstone, but now it's more 'an apartnet from God'. It is also able to crush competing memes, lets burn the witches or kill the infidels etc..

Most memes have a life span, i think traditional religion is probably nearing it's end in the Western world.. time will tell though.

The geniuses owning slaves doesn't really count, though. They weren't like all the uneducated hicks, who just worked their slaves. They actually went to the trouble of bangin' them and knocking them up, just to prove how equal they thought they were. Personally, I've always felt like anyone who was willing to impregnate me, surely must considered me to be his equal.

So a Thomas Jefferson (who owned slaves) and an Isaac Newton (who believed in God) become dolts as soon as enough intellectuals believe slavery is wrong and that religion is dead?

The majority rules? Democratic intelligentsia? Do intellectuals move in herds?

Is the average atheist college student of today more intelligent than Isaac Newton was?

:eek7

I believe in the meme, too. Of course, I usually put the word "screaming" before it, but it sounds like it's basically the same thing.

You sound like Voltaire. When did he die again?

u missed the point. My point was they lived in a different time.

The concept of the meme is a meme itself. ;-)

You didn't answer my question though. I know they lived in a different time. Do you want to define intelligence in such a way that belief in what the intellectuals of your day believe in is considered intelligent?

What? You don't think so?

yeah that's true :)

No.

Not an absolute sense and definitely not in the context used.