When I came out to my mom and grandparents that I was an Atheist, they were in total shock. They blamed it on my boyfriend, they blamed it on themselves, but what was the worst is that they said I was Atheist because I had low intelligence. How could that be? They told me that I had low intelligence because I was only studying one side of the arguement, not both. How could that be? I lived my life as a Christian. I was a devoted Christan for a long time untill I realized how backwards it all was. I could no longer force myself to believe in something that was so rediculous, so I looked at the other side of things and found that it made more sense. I do not understand why I am stupid because I decided to not blindly follow some invisible being. So please, someone explain to me why I have low intelligence.

Views: 8

Comment by Nelson on April 8, 2010 at 3:04pm
they have to believe that you're deconversion is due to low intelligence. the alternative is that they'd be forced to consider that their faith is due to low intelligence.
Comment by Jānis Ķimsis on April 8, 2010 at 3:11pm
Because only stupid people would give up on getting to live forever, duh. It's clear for everyone with half a brain that if you claim to believe something then it's true (but only the things you believe, not what some brown people believe).
Comment by Keith A. Szilagyi on April 8, 2010 at 3:15pm
"Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly." ~By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

The difference in IQ is 6 to 11 points.

Here is the link from which I quoted:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intellig...
Comment by Cara Coleen on April 8, 2010 at 3:17pm
You don't have low intelligence. Talk about a low-blow! This is the Personal Attack ad hominem. I really doubt they truly believe you have low intelligence, but if they bully you by insulting you, maybe you'll change your mind.

I have the same frustration with my family, even though they've never insulted my intelligence. They have all conveniently forgotten just how devoted I was; how "on fire". They tell me things I've heard, and said, my whole life as if I'd never heard it before! Oh really? Jesus died for my sins? Gee, thanks... no one's ever told me that before! PUH-LEEEZ! Give me some credit here! I've done my homework and they are the ones who only know one side of the argument.

Obviously, no one on this site is going to concede the "argument" that you have low intelligence. If anything, your deconversion is a testament to your critical thinking skills; skills they obviously lack. Don't let their insults get to you; just let it roll off while you roll your eyes at their ignorance.
Comment by Keith A. Szilagyi on April 8, 2010 at 3:19pm
Oh yeah, what Cara said as well.
Comment by Dave G on April 8, 2010 at 3:37pm
Sounds to me like they're doing some projecting there. I really doubt that they've studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jaimism, Wicca, Norse mythos, or any of the hundreds of other religions out there, so their claim that you are 'only studying one side' applies far more to them than to you.

You do not have low intelligence. If anything, your willingness to examine your beliefs and discard those for which you have no or contradictory evidence is a sign of above average intelligence.
Comment by Shine on April 8, 2010 at 7:03pm
Wait, how could they possibly accuse you of only studying one side if you had already been a devout Christian? By default, you have already studied the side of Christianity; therefore, if you explore any other ideas, you are automatically considering at least two sides. The entire base of their criticism that you are only looking at one side is completely illogical.
Comment by B. on April 8, 2010 at 8:24pm
So if you have low intelligence for being an atheist, what's their explanation for most scientists (over 90% according to most studies!) being atheists?

Are all our scientists the "low intelligence" population?
Comment by James on April 8, 2010 at 11:11pm
You don't have 'low intelligence'. If any, your willingness to study both sides of the argument suggest quite the opposite. Their reaction in this way is possibly due two reasons.

1). They may have been told that this is the case. Often times the believer uses the church/pastor as their information source. Why do you think so many US Christians doubt evolution and like to spout about there not being evidence. It's obvious that no true research was done. It's either due to ignorance of the topic of plain misinformation by the people they trust to be in an authority position (pastor, etc).

2). It's a defense mechanism. What better way to defend your belief, then to try and undermine the basis of the opposition? Actually, it's childish, rude and disrespectful. It's almost like bad political attacks. Candidate X likes to drive far too fast... Can we really trust him with the safety of our nation?
Comment by Chetan D on April 9, 2010 at 12:07am
Just do what Russell Peters friend did to his mom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42MJCBqXDE
At 1:04 is where the fun begins

I keed of course.

Here's an awesome video to inspire you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU

Disable the annotations in that video to see it.

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