% of religious and smart people vis a vis Hurricane Katrina?

[David Sklansky]

I'm not sure what that response meant. But here is a specific contention that, if wrong, negates much of what I have said on this topic:

Select 100,000 religious Christians at random. Give them three years to study math with a focus on partial differential equations.(Assume they will do it.)

Select 100,000 people randomly who are not religious Christians but have approximately the same educational backgrounds as the religious Christians. Give them the same three years to study.

After three years give the 200,000 a tough partial diffential equation exam.

I say that the average of the top 1000 scores of the religious Christians is well below the average of the top 1000 scores of the other group.

I say that not because believing makes you stupid but rather because a belief that the stories of the Christian religion are probably true (as opposed to simply hoping they are true) is not something as likely to occur in a brain that is capable of doing excellent thinking.

PS it is not necessary that the excellent thinkers know the intricacies of Christianity for the point to hold. They need only know that Christians believe that there is a God who intervenes in our lives, that Mary was a virgin, that Jesus was ressurected, etc.