Does religiosity make people dumb?
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When it come to studies which supposedly shows that there a negative correlation, people will usually citing studies (E.g, The in 2013 called "The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity." By Miron Zuckerman, Jordan Silberman, and Judith A. Hall.) Which shows a support for the negative correlation. However, people should note when it come to those is that correlation doesn’t mean causation, and even the study said that the correlation doesn’t mean causation. As I quote: “The present findings are correlational and cannot support any casual relation.”. And, in fact the study has been challenged. A study in 2016 by Gregory D. Webster and Ryan D. Duffy called “Losing faith in the "Losing Faith in the Intelligence–religiosity Link: New Evidence for a Decline Effect, Spatial Dependence, and Mediation by Education and Life Quality.".
Religiosity and Schools.
There are some studies which shows that Religiosity correlation well at school. (E.g, A study by William H. Jeynes called “A meta-analysis of the Effects of Attending Religious Schools and Religiosity of Black and Hispanic Academic Achievement”.)
Religiosity and Analytic thinking.
There are some studies which may show a negative correlation (Gervais, Will M, et al. “Analytic Atheism: A Cross-Culturally Weak and Fickle Phenomenon?”) But, as stated before correlation doesn’t mean causation. And, in fact the study suggest that the reason why religious and analytic thinking may have a negative correlation, it may have to do with people (Who may have low analytic thinking) tend to conform to the cultural norm. But, another studies have challenged this (E.g A 2017 study called “Supernatural Belief Is Not Modulated by Intuitive Thinking Style or Cognitive Inhibition.” By Farias, Miguel, et al.)
So, that’s about it. And, basing on the evidence and the studies, we can firmly established that there is no evidence that religiosity makes people dumb.
Sources: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868313497266
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289616000027
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001312402237213
http://journal.sjdm.org/18/18228/jdm18228.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14090-9
Pro started off strong, but unfortunately forfeited 2 of 3 rounds. Therefore, debate goes to Con.
Pro did have a stronger speech, but he forfeited his round, leaving out major counter arguments and sources.
Also Patmos kinda touches on some areas similar to my thought.
As con pointed out, pro did not establish a causal relationship between religiosity and intelligence which the resolution, as worded requires. While pro did have a strong first post, his forfeiture of the last two posts and not addressing con's response is enough to cause him to lose the debate.
One way that con could strengthen his argument would be to add more positive arguments in favor of his position. He could argue for example that the vast majority of the most brilliant minds in human history have believed in some form of God. Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Copernicus, St.Thomas Aquinas, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein. Just to name a few.
Well, this sucks
Fix it.
You are on the green/pro side but you disagree with it based on your short description on the Debates page.