Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the “intellectual elite” considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded “simplistic” by critics.
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Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.

A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.

Submitted By: (Mike Walker) mikemcmack (at) yahoo (dot) com

Submitted By: Being Human

It is quite reasonable to ask why active atheists are often spending their time just opposing something. Atheists are not bringing any new ideology to replace the religions. They just claim that people can live a fuller and freer life without the reigns of religions.

Why am I spending my precious time writing these words? I could as well leave the whole business and just admit that some people think like me and others do not.

The issue is not so simple, however. This attitude is quite justified if religion is a private matter and it is not on offer every day in daycare, in preschool, school, boy scouts and even in communal care for the elderly as is the case here in Finland, which has a reputation as an extremely secular nation.

Submitted By : (Frederick H. Spoerl) fredspoerl (at) yahoo (dot) com

There has been a lot of misinformation about what role religion played in the history of our great country, from many who claim that our constitution was inspired by Christianity… Here are a few facts that you might not have known.

The United States was the first nation in history to introduce the separation of church and state. The Christian principles that the Puritan had of burning witches and King George III’s mandate that subjects worship in a manner approved by the Church of England, made our Founding Fathers aware of the problems of having any religion involved in our new country.

by Robert G. Ingersoll
1894
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Somebody ought to tell the truth about the Bible. The preachers dare not, because they would be driven from their pulpits. Professors in colleges dare not, because they would lose their salaries. Politicians dare not. They would be defeated. Editors dare not. They would lose subscribers. Merchants dare not, because they might lose customers. Men of fashion dare not, fearing that they would lose caste. Even clerks dare not, because they might be discharged. And so I thought I would do it myself.

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JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“I’m not in it for cash,” Hall said. “I want no one else to go what I went through.”

Known as “the atheist guy,” Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and — just as severe to some soldiers — gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals.