Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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Phil Hellmuth once said he can "look into his opponent's eyes and see into his soul"

PH obviously believes in an immortal soul and presumably a God who created it.

PH is thus a theist. Since PH is one of the best poker players in the world, we can necessarily deduce that theists outperform atheists at the poker table.

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Please reply, Bigdaddydvo, and let us know if this was a joke or sarcasm?

If its serious it must be one of the silliest attempts at logic I have ever seen. And possible adds weight to the theist=illogical angle?

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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"I believe it is due in part to the fact that in order to be a good poker player you need to be mathematical, logical and analytical."

Probably only a few people remember that the start of all the religion debates occurred when someone put up a similar thesis, before this forum even existed, on the psychology forum and I replied something like:

"People who truly believe in the specifics of particular religions are much less likely to be good poker players given the importance of objective evidence evaluation that poker requires."

Nothing has changed in my mind.

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I'm glad this subject has reemerged because I believe there is a significant factor being missed here. The reason there appear to be more athiests on this website and who play poker in general is the traditional social regard to gambling. Especially in the United States, gambling is seen in a very negative light among the religious. Poker is only now becoming more mainstream. Now that it is more widely accepted, more and more theists will emerge as top players, especially at the tournament level.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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I'm glad this subject has reemerged because I believe there is a significant factor being missed here. The reason there appear to be more athiests on this website and who play poker in general is the traditional social regard to gambling. Especially in the United States, gambling is seen in a very negative light among the religious. Poker is only now becoming more mainstream. Now that it is more widely accepted, more and more theists will emerge as top players, especially at the tournament level.


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Interesting supposition - time will tell if it pans out.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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Now that it is more widely accepted, more and more theists will emerge as top players, especially at the tournament level.

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It's not fair if you have an all-mighty infinite being helping to crack aces.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

"I'm glad this subject has reemerged because I believe there is a significant factor being missed here. The reason there appear to be more athiests on this website and who play poker in general is the traditional social regard to gambling. Especially in the United States, gambling is seen in a very negative light among the religious. Poker is only now becoming more mainstream. Now that it is more widely accepted, more and more theists will emerge as top players, especially at the tournament level.

Interesting supposition - time will tell if it pans out."

The hypothesis seems reasonable if it weren't for this:

The better the player, the less likely he is to be religious.

Assuming that is true, (and all my personal experience tells me it is), it makes my case regardles of the percentage of devout theists presently playing.

Of course this whole idea is simply a special case of a general concept. Theists are also much less likely to be great in Bridge, Backgammon, Logic puzzles, Chemistry, Physics, IQ tests, Probability, Analytic Geometry, Trading Options, Molecular Biology, or anything else requiring analytical thought. Don't tell me social mores are the blame all of that. Either religion makes you dumber (or at least less intellectually curious) or dumb people are more likely to become religious. Or a combination of both.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

Here, Here
\raises glass...

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

So are there any top-level pros who pray regularly at the table? I mean do you know of the religious beliefs of most of these guys and gals?

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

DS summerized -
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"People who truly believe in the specifics of particular religions are much less likely to be good poker players given the importance of objective evidence evaluation that poker requires."

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DS has expressed it from a few angles, none of which are caught by this much more general statement of Txag007 -
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Poker is only now becoming more mainstream. Now that it is more widely accepted, more and more theists will emerge as top players, especially at the tournament level.

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Even if 80% of top players of the future are theists ( the approximate american population ratio of theist - nontheist) that would have no bearing on DS's claim. It's a specific mindset about their faith that is an indicator of the style of thinking not helpful in shifting analytical strategy situations where everything is relative, poker, bridge, military strategy ( not so much tactics), theoretical physics, for instance.

General theistic beliefs based on a leap of faith doesn't automatically send out the warning signals. It's the dogmatic specific parts of the faith ( whatever it is) being defended as arrived at logically that is the 'tell'.

luckyme,
if I thought I was wrong, I'd change my mind.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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Of course this whole idea is simply a special case of a general concept. Theists are also much less likely to be great in Bridge, Backgammon, Logic puzzles, Chemistry, Physics, IQ tests, Probability, Analytic Geometry, Trading Options, Molecular Biology, or anything else requiring analytical thought. Don't tell me social mores are the blame all of that.

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We've been over this in other threads, David. This is your opinion. It is NOT fact, and yet you continue to regard it as such.

Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
 

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General theistic beliefs based on a leap of faith doesn't automatically send out the warning signals. It's the dogmatic specific parts of the faith ( whatever it is) being defended as arrived at logically that is the 'tell'.

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What I find humorous is the numerous posts that claim Christianity is illogical, when the poster obviously knows little about the church. Sklansky is the worst.

SKLANSKY:
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"People who truly believe in the specifics of particular religions are much less likely to be good poker players given the importance of objective evidence evaluation that poker requires."

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SKLANSKY:
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I resort to those arguments a lot because I'm not knowledgeble about any religions specifics. When you claim that if I studied Christianity I would change my mind I can't prove you wrong because I'm not going to go to the trouble.

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