The big news today on Yahoo was what many atheists and humanists have assumed all along: Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to scientific studies.
This isn't big news, but it is nice to see some science behind the theory actually being shown. For those who haven't seen the article, check it out here: Religious people are less intelligent than atheists
Now, I'm unable to access the databases to read the actual journal articles, but 63 scientific studies that go back decades all show a negative correlation between religious belief and intelligence. I would love to be able to read the articles and tell you how strong the argument is, and get some actual numbers and assess the studies from the perspective of the scientist, but I have to rely on the Yahoo article for now. Something in that article did jump out at me, though, and I want to see this expanded on.
The researchers pointed out that "People possessing the functions that religion provides are likely to
adopt atheism, people lacking these very functions (e.g., the poor, the
helpless) are likely to adopt theism". This vague allusion to the role religion plays on the poor is exactly the issue I run into where I live, and see in dealings with some of my family.
I'm, as my moniker states, stone broke, and I lack any links to churches, save for the ordination by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, that would provide any assistance to my family, and while it sucks not having a church type community that we could lean on and help in return, I have serious issues with lying to myself and to others to get a handout by going to church. I do have a family member, however, who I feel does so. I won't name names, but she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a couple years ago. She was ripe for the plucking, if Stephen Fry's theory on the LDS church is true (Stephen Fry Big Think Video); she is of a certain age, and her children have all left the nest and are far away (and don't deal with her much), plus she's poor as hell. Now, I don't know how much of it she actually believes in, and I don't ask because I feel someone's beliefs are something that are not my business, but she was really struggling before joining the church, and now the church helps her pay her bills, got her job training, and helped her get through school, and she gets the promise of her family being reunited with her in the afterlife. When she told me she was joining it made me question her intelligence, and her reasoning behind it.
I have friends who are LDS, nearly all of them were born into it, and I don't have issues with the church as a whole; in fact in regards to taking care of their members and having a sense of community it is one of the best around in spite of the oddball things that members must do to show the strength of their faith. My problem is that I think the LDS church, as well as others like the Baptists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, prey on the ones who are down and out, offering help with a heaping side of fire and brimstone. I remember when I lived in the poor parts of the Pacific Northwest, a church group would rent out the community center once a week and offer kids activities to keep them off the streets and away from the gang violence that happened often. It's the only time having a photographic memory paid off; they paid money to kids who could remember the most bible verses, and the more one remembered, the more they paid. It's also the last time I read the bible, because afterwards I was disillusioned by the whole church idea, especially when the Jehovah's Witnesses started coming to the door and talking to my mother once a week. That separation became stronger after the move to Vegas, where in the trailer park we lived in the first year had a bus coming every Sunday from the nearby Baptist church to pick up kids to take to church while their parents slept off their hangovers. Then once my family moved from the trailer park to Little Cuba/Little Mexico, we had our fair share of missionaries coming by trying to spread the word of their makers, but save for the JW incidents my family was relatively safe from people really pushing to convert to anything until we kids left home. Even my two closest friends in high school, both of who were (and still are) very involved in the LDS church, didn't push converting to their faith. But I digress.
My musings tonight from this article make me seriously wonder how intelligent some people really are; and if I am truly still an outlier, like I am in every other study I tend to be in, being poor and a humanist. What is really the threshold for the intelligence to reject religion? Where must one be in their ability to reason and think critically to be able to make the leap from religious belief to a freedom from religion? How does one become a poor non-believer when there are churches around that are willing to help, so long as you pledge your soul to their particular style of guilt and morality? Where is the line that protects the intelligent child from being sucked into a system of divine servitude? And how does a free thinking parent teach their child how to avoid being drawn in blindly?
Monday, August 12, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
The crew
If I'm going to write about family life as a stone broke skeptic, I should probably talk about who the family consists of. Just some details to flesh out who they are so when reading you get an idea of where I might be coming from in our chaotic life.
The BaldMan: Husbeast for me, dad to our two rugrats. He's disabled and on VA disability as our only source of income at the moment. He's also going through school to become an accountant, but tends to have some serious problems with attention span and getting homework done (he does in fact have ADD). He's got the brains, but no drive to get anything done. He's taking one final class this fall, a science class, and he'll (finally) have his Associates degree. He tends to act like a teenager a lot, would rather play video games or trading card games than actually do things around the house, and is a serious procrastinator. I love him dearly, but he does tend to drive me batty at times.
The Boychild: four years old, very active and hyper. Has dad's problems with attention span and a good dose of mama's stubbornness, but he's also wicked smart (reads and can do basic math, etc) and has a huge heart, loves to give hugs and kisses to everyone. I worry about his sensory issues, though; he has some problems with loud noises and refuses to use the toilet because of the noise that happens when peeing. He starts at Head Start pre-school this fall, and they do screenings before then for those types of issues. I almost want to test him out of Head Start and put him into Kindergarten, but he needs to learn to be around other kids and some other social things that outweigh the knowing how to read and write.
Ms. Sassypants: the new baby (11 weeks old as of tomorrow). She's the spitting image of her daddy with her mama's lungs and attitude. Very happy morning baby (a morning person like her mama and her brother), but once 6pm rolls around she's cranky as hell and won't calm down for anything for a good hour and a half. She's slow to wake up, but once she does she's alert and smiling and checking everything out. Likes to coo and gab along to mama's singing, and is already a little heart breaker with her red hair and big blue eyes. We made a lot of changes in our day to day baby routine when we knew she was coming, and it's been interesting transitioning to things like cloth diapering, pumping breast milk to keep from going on formula, etc.
Grammy: The BaldMan's mom. To know her is to love her. She's a sweetheart, over here often, and a huge help to us all. She's the Boychild's BFF, and one of my closest friends. While she is not a skeptic in the religious sense, she is smarter than most people give her credit for and can often look through the bullshit to find common sense answers.
Papa: BaldMan's dad. No-nonsense guy, smart as hell, and as much a skeptic as I am. He's like a toasted marshmallow: Crusty on the outside, but when it comes to his grandbabies is gooey as hell. Won't have much to do with them as infants, but once they can talk clearly he has fun with them.
Then there's me, The Stone Broke Skeptic: Like my name states, I'm a skeptic by nature and poor to boot. While I am trying to find work that pays, I stay at home with the rugrats and write when I get a moment or two. I have a BA in Psychology that is mainly being used for writing complex characters in stories that I want to finish and submit for publishing, but I do eventually want to go back to school and get my Masters and PhD in Psychology, focusing on cognitive neuropsychology. I would love to work with veterans and do research into the physiological symptoms of PTSD, but right now I can't afford to spend another $100,000 in student loans to get to my degree and I cannot afford to move to a program where I can study it in a classroom and lab instead of solely online (I have nothing against online classes, I did many of them for my undergraduate degree; but for this, I need to study in the classroom). I grew up poor, watched my mother use the Lutheran Church (and now the LDS church) as a means to get us help when we needed it as a family and vowed to never do the same, especially since I don't really believe in a higher power. I got ordained in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster about a year ago so that if same sex couples (or any couples, really) wanted to get married in a secular ceremony I could perform the ceremony for them wherever they wanted in NY state (save for the city, as there different laws there), but otherwise do not see organized religion as being something I want to expose my children to, and frankly really despise in some cases.
Unfortunately for me, I live in an area where religion has tainted many of the social programs that are set up to help the less fortunate or income-challenged. Head Start classes are often in churches, food banks are usually in churches, as are thrift shops in my particular village. It makes trying to stretch my dollar a lot more difficult, as I refuse to spend my money in places that use the money to promote their religious agenda, like for missionary work, etc. One of the biggest ones of them all is Project Gabriel, which was pushed on me constantly while I was pregnant with Ms. Sassy Pants. The same people who bring Project Gabriel to life in our area are the ones who are in charge of Birthright. You know, the anti-abortion group that then rips babies away from their mothers, sometimes without their consent, without teaching them about their options? Yeah, there was no way in the world I would associate with those monsters, but they are constantly mentioned by DSS, Public Health, and the like as a happy and helpful agency. But that's for another posting.
As I said last week, this blog will mainly be about how to live a skeptical life in a non-skeptical world when you are stone broke. I'll post how to stretch a dollar until it screams, especially with kids stuff, but also the political and social problems that can happen when you are a free-thinker who is income challenged.
The BaldMan: Husbeast for me, dad to our two rugrats. He's disabled and on VA disability as our only source of income at the moment. He's also going through school to become an accountant, but tends to have some serious problems with attention span and getting homework done (he does in fact have ADD). He's got the brains, but no drive to get anything done. He's taking one final class this fall, a science class, and he'll (finally) have his Associates degree. He tends to act like a teenager a lot, would rather play video games or trading card games than actually do things around the house, and is a serious procrastinator. I love him dearly, but he does tend to drive me batty at times.
The Boychild: four years old, very active and hyper. Has dad's problems with attention span and a good dose of mama's stubbornness, but he's also wicked smart (reads and can do basic math, etc) and has a huge heart, loves to give hugs and kisses to everyone. I worry about his sensory issues, though; he has some problems with loud noises and refuses to use the toilet because of the noise that happens when peeing. He starts at Head Start pre-school this fall, and they do screenings before then for those types of issues. I almost want to test him out of Head Start and put him into Kindergarten, but he needs to learn to be around other kids and some other social things that outweigh the knowing how to read and write.
Ms. Sassypants: the new baby (11 weeks old as of tomorrow). She's the spitting image of her daddy with her mama's lungs and attitude. Very happy morning baby (a morning person like her mama and her brother), but once 6pm rolls around she's cranky as hell and won't calm down for anything for a good hour and a half. She's slow to wake up, but once she does she's alert and smiling and checking everything out. Likes to coo and gab along to mama's singing, and is already a little heart breaker with her red hair and big blue eyes. We made a lot of changes in our day to day baby routine when we knew she was coming, and it's been interesting transitioning to things like cloth diapering, pumping breast milk to keep from going on formula, etc.
Grammy: The BaldMan's mom. To know her is to love her. She's a sweetheart, over here often, and a huge help to us all. She's the Boychild's BFF, and one of my closest friends. While she is not a skeptic in the religious sense, she is smarter than most people give her credit for and can often look through the bullshit to find common sense answers.
Papa: BaldMan's dad. No-nonsense guy, smart as hell, and as much a skeptic as I am. He's like a toasted marshmallow: Crusty on the outside, but when it comes to his grandbabies is gooey as hell. Won't have much to do with them as infants, but once they can talk clearly he has fun with them.
Then there's me, The Stone Broke Skeptic: Like my name states, I'm a skeptic by nature and poor to boot. While I am trying to find work that pays, I stay at home with the rugrats and write when I get a moment or two. I have a BA in Psychology that is mainly being used for writing complex characters in stories that I want to finish and submit for publishing, but I do eventually want to go back to school and get my Masters and PhD in Psychology, focusing on cognitive neuropsychology. I would love to work with veterans and do research into the physiological symptoms of PTSD, but right now I can't afford to spend another $100,000 in student loans to get to my degree and I cannot afford to move to a program where I can study it in a classroom and lab instead of solely online (I have nothing against online classes, I did many of them for my undergraduate degree; but for this, I need to study in the classroom). I grew up poor, watched my mother use the Lutheran Church (and now the LDS church) as a means to get us help when we needed it as a family and vowed to never do the same, especially since I don't really believe in a higher power. I got ordained in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster about a year ago so that if same sex couples (or any couples, really) wanted to get married in a secular ceremony I could perform the ceremony for them wherever they wanted in NY state (save for the city, as there different laws there), but otherwise do not see organized religion as being something I want to expose my children to, and frankly really despise in some cases.
Unfortunately for me, I live in an area where religion has tainted many of the social programs that are set up to help the less fortunate or income-challenged. Head Start classes are often in churches, food banks are usually in churches, as are thrift shops in my particular village. It makes trying to stretch my dollar a lot more difficult, as I refuse to spend my money in places that use the money to promote their religious agenda, like for missionary work, etc. One of the biggest ones of them all is Project Gabriel, which was pushed on me constantly while I was pregnant with Ms. Sassy Pants. The same people who bring Project Gabriel to life in our area are the ones who are in charge of Birthright. You know, the anti-abortion group that then rips babies away from their mothers, sometimes without their consent, without teaching them about their options? Yeah, there was no way in the world I would associate with those monsters, but they are constantly mentioned by DSS, Public Health, and the like as a happy and helpful agency. But that's for another posting.
As I said last week, this blog will mainly be about how to live a skeptical life in a non-skeptical world when you are stone broke. I'll post how to stretch a dollar until it screams, especially with kids stuff, but also the political and social problems that can happen when you are a free-thinker who is income challenged.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Starting out
So I've always been a skeptic, of everything. I questioned authority and lamented the lack of humanity in my life. Growing up in the poorer neighborhoods of Seattle and Las Vegas, one learns that the only way to survive is to think about oneself and how to get out of the streets. Some people decide to stay street smart only; they learn to adapt to the violence and anger and frustration of being poor and instead of fighting to get out, they stay and stop fighting against the powers that leave them in that cycle of poverty.
But when you're a skeptic, or have any sense of intelligence, you strain against that cycle; you do everything you can to get out with education, but nowadays even getting an education leaves those skeptics in piles of debt with no guarantees of getting out of college with a job that can pay for the degree. It can often make one wonder what the point is of getting an education and trying to break the cycle, when the cycle just comes back and sucks us back into that vortex with no real way out seen.
But there is a point: knowledge is power. Knowledge is strength. Knowledge is everything.
The problem is that unless this knowledge helps get us out of the cycle of poverty, the stone broke skeptics, those who are living on little to no money and trying to get ahead, we are stuck and it can leave us prone to depression and social deprivation. We are unable to socialize with other skeptics unless we live in urban areas, because we do not have the means to find other skeptics. Unlike church-goers, we have less access to social networks of free-thinkers save for the internet, and we have less access to social services and outreach programs.
Thus, StoneBroke Skeptic has been born. Here is where I will talk about what it's like for the less affluent atheists, humanists and free-thinkers, and ways some of us have learned to adapt, etc. Nothing is off-limits for discussion, whether it be talking about stretching a budget, coping with WIC, how to access secular social service programs, etc. Sometimes I'll talk about personal stuff, sometimes it will be more general. No matter what, it's always going to be from the slightly sardonic, stone broke skeptic viewpoint.
But when you're a skeptic, or have any sense of intelligence, you strain against that cycle; you do everything you can to get out with education, but nowadays even getting an education leaves those skeptics in piles of debt with no guarantees of getting out of college with a job that can pay for the degree. It can often make one wonder what the point is of getting an education and trying to break the cycle, when the cycle just comes back and sucks us back into that vortex with no real way out seen.
But there is a point: knowledge is power. Knowledge is strength. Knowledge is everything.
The problem is that unless this knowledge helps get us out of the cycle of poverty, the stone broke skeptics, those who are living on little to no money and trying to get ahead, we are stuck and it can leave us prone to depression and social deprivation. We are unable to socialize with other skeptics unless we live in urban areas, because we do not have the means to find other skeptics. Unlike church-goers, we have less access to social networks of free-thinkers save for the internet, and we have less access to social services and outreach programs.
Thus, StoneBroke Skeptic has been born. Here is where I will talk about what it's like for the less affluent atheists, humanists and free-thinkers, and ways some of us have learned to adapt, etc. Nothing is off-limits for discussion, whether it be talking about stretching a budget, coping with WIC, how to access secular social service programs, etc. Sometimes I'll talk about personal stuff, sometimes it will be more general. No matter what, it's always going to be from the slightly sardonic, stone broke skeptic viewpoint.
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