Being religious doesn’t imply that you are not intelligent. That much is clear since something close to 15% of the most successful scientists claim to be theists. Now, it’s possible (but I’m not making the claim) that many or even most of them answer surveys saying that they do believe in some flavour of theism simply because they are under pressure from their family and friends to conform to their religion. In the past this pressure extended to violence and/or imprisonment and, indeed, there are places in the World where that’s still a possibility; even without that threat, though, there are still great social pressures.
Well, that’s as maybe but I claim that there are aspects of theistic belief that do mark a person out as being, well, not the sharpest tool in the shed. For instance…
I say that anybody who thinks that any of the following arguments justify belief in, say, the god of the Bible, is not likely to be found in the upper quartile of human intelligence:
1) The cosmological argument
2) The argument from design
3) The fine-tuning argument
4) The moral argument
5) The ontological argument
Let’s look at the background facts, focussing on the Bible, and then have a good think about these arguments.
So… the Bible…
1. – It contradicts known science
…. e.g. Adam and Eve vs the theory of evolution by natural selection
…. e.g. Noah’s flood vs modern geology
2. – It contradicts known history
…. e.g. The people of the later nation of Israel being enslaved en masse in Egypt
3. – It contains moral abominations
…. e.g. God commanding for race-based genocide
…. e.g. God commanding for race-based slavery
…. e.g. God commanding for public participation torture-to-death frenzies
…. e.g. The notion that all people deserve to (and most people will) be tortured forever
4. – It contradicts itself
…. e.g. Genesis 1’s order of creation vs Genesis 2’s order (neither according with the science)
…. e.g. The conflicting genealogies given for Jesus
And now the five arguments…
Each and every one of these arguments essentially promotes the notion that there is some intelligent and/or powerful and/or well-meaning agency responsible for the World as we know it. Now, today I don’t want to argue about whether a single one of those arguments holds any water (I don’t think they do) but, rather, I’m prepared (for the sake of debate) to accept that the arguments are valid and sound.
So…
The question before us is:
Do these arguments increase or decrease the probability of the god of the Bible being a real entity?
Well… they all argue, as I say, for some aspect of an intelligent, powerful and well-meaning agency…
Would an intelligent, powerful and well-meaning agent choose to reveal itself to us through the Bible!?
I don’t think that it’s possible for an above-average intelligence human being in the modern World to think that the answer to that question is “yes”. Certainly not if they have read the Bible thoroughly. Of course, it’s possible that intelligent liars put these arguments forwards whilst not believing them themselves…
What do you think? Can you be intelligent and think that the physical constants of the universe help indicate that the Bible is the word of a real deity?