Recent posts have proposed convoluted theories accounting for why atheists score higher on IQ tests than religious people. There is a much simpler explanation. Like a lot of correlations of this type, it is probably less exciting than it appears.
Atheists are probably more intelligent than religious people because they benefit from many social conditions that happen to be correlated with loss of religious belief. When one looks at this phenomenon from the point of view of comparisons between countries, it is not hard to figure out possible reasons that more intelligent countries have more atheists as Richard Lynn (2009) reported.
Here are some. Highly religious countries:
- Are poorer.
- They are less urbanized.
- Have lower levels of education.
- They have less exposure to electronic media that increase intelligence (Barber, 2006).
- Experience a heavier load of infectious diseases that impair brain function.
- Suffer more from low birth weights.
- Have worse child nutrition.
- Do a poor job of controlling environmental pollutants such as lead that reduce IQ.
Given that each of these factors are recognized causes of low IQ scores (Barber 2005), there is little mystery about why religious countries score lower on IQ tests. Of course, the same phenomena are relevant to comparisons within a country, although within-country differences in these factors are generally smaller. Even so, the wealthier individuals in a country experience life differently than the poorer ones, developing higher IQ scores and greater religious skepticism.
