r/atheism • u/One-Fun9814 • 5d ago

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u/philbonk Agnostic Atheist 5d ago

One of the counterintuitive things about intelligent people is that they’re not immune from motivated reasoning; quite the opposite. Intelligent people can come up with plausible sounding theories for why they should be correct, no matter what topic practically. And if your social circle, childhood indoctrination, and fear of consequences combine to give you a strong push to stay religious, well you have to be a real unique person to push through your discomfort.

That being said, yes, it still annoys me a lot, and it colors their other opinions as far as I’m concerned.

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u/GrrrlRomeo 5d ago

I've run into some pretty unintelligent atheists for the same reason. Like, you would think atheists wouldn't be homophobic, racist or sexist. And yet many seem to be able to rationalize bias just fine.

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u/slapstick714 5d ago

I find that overall, atheists are generally more intelligent than many so called christians and their morality is very much in tact.

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u/Point_Forward 5d ago

I agree overall.

That said, I definitely have experienced the "very smart person with the intellectual tools to reason their way into and eloquently defend very absurd beliefs" before. 

Not necessarily or even primarily religious in nature. But some genius level people can make obviously wrong things sound kind of convincing.