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#1
11-09-2005, 06:16 AM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
"This seems to me, to be pretty much the same as my statement that people with faith in God, the Bible, their pastor, ouija boards, etc, are much more apt to make irrational decisions. Yet, you seemed to have chided me by saying it's not about faith. "People who believe in the specifics of a religion..." sounds like faith to me."
No one has faith in ouija boards. Not by the definition I was using. And most people believe that their brand of religion makes a lot of sense. These are the people who tend to make worse poker players. 
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#2
11-09-2005, 11:15 AM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
[ QUOTE ]
"This seems to me, to be pretty much the same as my statement that people with faith in God, the Bible, their pastor, ouija boards, etc, are much more apt to make irrational decisions. Yet, you seemed to have chided me by saying it's not about faith. "People who believe in the specifics of a religion..." sounds like faith to me." No one has faith in ouija boards. Not by the definition I was using. And most people believe that their brand of religion makes a lot of sense. These are the people who tend to make worse poker players. [/ QUOTE ] People have faith in ouija boards, by the definition I was using: "Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence." What definition of faith are you using?
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#3
11-09-2005, 03:15 AM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
I concede that the point you make here is probably true. The implications of your statement, though, are either too facile (and therefore flawed) or too subtle (and therefore easily misunderstood).
It is the second of these possibilities which I would like to address. Another respondant to this post (KipBond) seems like a smart enough fellow, but his comment suggests a profound misunderstanding of the point you are trying to make. You ought to clarify these things, lest you unwittingly invite the unjust criticism of dumb believers and provoke the unjust vitriol of the dumb unbelievers.
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#4
11-09-2005, 11:41 AM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
[ QUOTE ]
"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. [/ QUOTE ] 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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#5
11-09-2005, 12:24 PM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
[ QUOTE ]
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. [/ QUOTE ] Interesting supposition - time will tell if it pans out.
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#6
11-09-2005, 03:18 PM
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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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#9
11-09-2005, 04:42 PM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
[ QUOTE ]
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. [/ QUOTE ] 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.
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#10
11-09-2005, 06:51 PM
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Re: Are atheists better poker players than theists?
It is probably true that dumb people are more likely to become religious than are smart people (even though this is not, as you assume, monocausal).
But it is also probably true that dumb people are more likely to become religious than they are to become atheists. And this contributes to the verity of your conjecture. Should St. Peter begin proctoring IQ tests outside the gates of heaven, in order to maintain the intellectual respectability of the joint?
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