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.
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