"The smartest man in America, Chris langan has an IQ of 195. He believes that there is a God.
Does this count for anything to all those who demand scientific knowledge?"
[After being informed that Chris Langan accepts the theory of evolution and is in no way a Christian]
"I am very aware of Chris views. My only point was that he has a very high IQ and yet he belives there is a God. So the first step on this is that someone who is considered the smartest man in America believes that there is a God.
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And? Lots of smart people believe or do dumb shit. I went to school with a kid who had a 4.0 pretty consistent. He was also the type of person to constantly ask where the bathroom passes were when the teacher never moved them.
Oh, and this Chris Langan guy sounds like your run of the mill deist when it comes to a god.
I bet if he said he fully supported gay marriage, you'd be singing a different tune.
So, you make an appeal to authority, then, in a later post try to tear down the very authority you were appealing to. Way to have a consistant stance.
While intelligence should help one reason one's way out of religious delusions, it is not a perfect protection. Wisdom and a certain measure of confidence are also required. Even so, many persons fall victim to ridiculous beliefs.
So...high IQ and agrees with you, then it proves that to be smart, you have to agree with you. High IQ and disagrees with you, well then...IQ isn't everything, anyways. Ye gods...
So appeals to authority only work for your side, then?
I think you just may be the douchiest douche that ever douched.
So? I'm majoring in physics and engineering, but I still believe in a spiritual, not religious, God...just not the one in the Bible, that guy's a real jerk. It doesn't mean I'm right, it's just something I choose to believe.
I have 132 IQ and yet, I too make mistakes. Besides, that is not the fucking point.
Appeal to people does not make that statement true either.
He's also a member of ISCID and buddies with Dembski, which says a lot about his intelligence.
Plus, argument from authority = fallacious.
"Smart man agrees with me, don't you feel stupid? What? Smart man actually disagrees with me? Well then he's not actually that smart, but, don't you still feel stupid?"
Do they not even read their own posts?
LOLWUT wrote:A high IQ doesn't mean you're immune to delusion, and it doesn't mean you can't be ignorant.
It does make it easier for you to spot useful ways to manipulate people though ;-)
"I am very aware of Chris views. My only point was that he has a very high IQ and yet he belives there is a God. So the first step on this is that someone who is considered the smartest man in America believes that there is a God.
No, his views on evolution prove that he is intelligent and educated enough to see that a belief in YEC and the literal truth of the bible conflicts with everything we know about reality.
So...you're using Langan's intellect in an argument from authority...and then you're questioning it?
If you want to play the argument from authority game, why do you claim him as an authority when he believes in a God, then dismiss him as an authority when he accepts the theory of evolution? Do you know better than him? Cite your credentials, please.
On second thought, don't bother. Your argument is a fallacy, so it's irrelevant, anyway.
Carl Sagan was pretty intelligent, and he was an atheist.
Einstein was one of the smartest men that ever lived, and he still made mistakes (the "cosmological constant", for example).
@Malkavian Jeff:
[My only point was that he has a very high IQ and yet he belives there is a God. ]
Yes, but is he religious?
I personally don't "have an IQ". I've been scored at various points in a certain range on a set of tests (extraordinarily culturally and socially biased tests, btw) called "IQ tests," but I "have an IQ" the same way that I "have a GRE" or "have a drug test".
There is nothing wrong with believing in god, but facts are facts, no god actually does exist. Anyone who says that the smartest guy on Earth said that god exists, which means that that makes him real. They must realize one simple thing. Beliefs are beliefs, intelligence is not part of belief. God does not exist.
See, this smart guy is totally on our side.
What?
He really isn't? Just said the posibilty of Deity was there? Believes in evolution?
Well he still has some stuff to learn, I guess, defeats my point though.
damn it.
I have to admit ignorance here, because I don't know who Chris Langan is. However, if he has an IQ that high, the "god" he probably believes in is the panthesitic god, which, to fundies, is the same thing, as long as smart people believe it. I love it when fundies think that pantheism equals belief in an anthropomorphic transcendent creator deity. Just fucking hilarious.
From wiki - Langan has claimed that "you can prove the existence of God, the soul and an afterlife, using mathematics."
I for one would like to see that proof, no really I would.
Brilliant, you guys are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Desperation has long set in, you're trying to claim people that have a large IQ score and believe in God as proof of your legitimacy. What the hell are you on about? I seriously doubt whether IQ tests and their results are a good indication of intelligence anyway.
Your still a simpleton if you're a fundamentalist and you're wrong if you believe in religion. The following facts apply:-
There is no god and it definitely does not exist.
Love ya, Pule.
"Does this count for anything to all those who demand scientific knowledge?"
appeal to authority, therefore: nope
@902472: Likewise.
@Frogflayer: Anyone remember George Hammond from USENET? He had similar ideas of proving the existence of God, by fusing general relativity with (of all things) psychometry. Yes, the result was as much incoherent drek as it sounds.
I'm not saying you can't quantify intelligence, but IQ scores are such bullshit.
I've seen major papers attribute 200+ IQs to various people, but 195 is the 'smartest man in America'?
Actually, Stephen Hawkings won't say what his IQ is. To quote him...
"People who boast about their IQ are losers," he said. (from this MSNBC, Nov 17, 2005 article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10086479/.
Seems that the highest IQ belongs to a working woman (the horrors!) Marilyn vos Savant
I doubt your IQ is even half his, Johnny.
Oh and @ Godbuster: fuck you. Every country in the world has its share of idiots, and I sincerely hope you stay in yours as not to bring any more to America.
So, you have these facts:
Does the fact that you suggest that there is a causal link between A and C but not between A and B say anything about biasedness to you?
He is smart and he says a thing, thus it must be correct! People who are smarter than you are right about everything!!
It's funny how fundies never practise what they preach..
In his early years, Charles Darwin was in training to become a member of the Church of England's clergy .
From his discoveries to his reath, Darwin was an agnostic . "On the Origin of Species" was a bigger seller than the Bible at the time. The Church of England welcomed with open arms his paradigm-shifting discoveries. They admit that much of the Bible is purely fable & metaphor; as in not to be taken literally .
"America believes that there is a God.
Meanwhile in Westminster Abbey, here in the UK...:
[img]http://s13.postimg.org/hm9j0atkz/darwins_grave_westminster_abbey.jpg[/img]
PROTIP: The Church of England has been going for far longer than the US; the C-of-E could even be called the basis of modern Protestant Christianity. Your call, John.
Chris is smart and Chris believes in a God.
Chris is smart and Chris believes in evolution.
It is the old heads I win tails you loose gambit.
You are missing an essential question, why does Mr. Langan believe in god? If it is his personal feeling that god exists, then that's his feeling. If he think that there is objective evidence for god, and that god is not something that has to be taken on faith, well then, he runs into the same problems that Ray Comfort and all the other creationists do.
"Chris Langan" is a prime example of how very wanting the current methodology for measuring human intellect is. The problem with Langan is not his belief in a God, but rather his outright rejection of the theory of evolution and his acceptance and support of the mindless drivel that is the Christian creation myth.
An old thread but since I was looking for Langan related material on FSTDT I found this. Others explained why the answer is no and some have pointed at real issues with IQ tests. I'll just add that IQ scores also depend on the competency of the psychologist presenting the tests, the current health of the subject and their disposition.
Then, Langan himself proposed using a small elite of high-IQ people to dictate ideas, to counter the scientific community while twisting it as an elite cabal. This shows ignorance or denial of the scientific method and its processes. For the same reason the answer is no, that proposal was nonsense. It would only amount to claims: listen, I'm more intelligent than you are, so here is what you should believe. Evidence-based systems are superior for knowledge development and assessment. No one person can, or should be allowed to be taken seriously when "dictating knowledge". It only leads to unquestionable fundamentalist doctrines, not knowledge. Thus, what Langan believes on a topic is irrelevant.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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