6 ms·

It is well documented that the level of religious intensity is very dramatically inversely proportional to education, as well as IQ and income level.

xlnt 18y ago
That's true. I bet YC is much more atheist than the general population. But I know a religious YC poster who's hesitant to express that kind of idea here; I also bet YC is a bit more religious than it appears.
- deleted 18y ago
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- tjr 18y ago
  I think it's also interesting that, up until the past century or so, many well-educated people were also openly religious. To wit, holding religious beliefs does not prevent one from doing excellent academic work... religion does not go hand-in-hand with stupidity or ineptitude.
  - crocus 18y ago
    I think you'd have to say "did not" rather than "does not." 200 years ago many well-educated people owned slaves. That doesn't allow us to conclude much about whether slave ownership and intelligence/education are intrinsically compatible.
    - tjr 18y ago
      I think you'd have to say "does not" rather than "did not." Don Knuth is Lutheran, and has done some of the most excellent academic work of anyone alive today. Guy Steele holds Christian beliefs of some sort, and his work has been extremely influential in the programming world. Just two examples off the top of my head, but I think enough to keep the verb in the present tense. We would be remiss to claim that religious beliefs imply academic stupidity. We would also be remiss to claim that lack of religious beliefs imply academic stupidity.
      - mattmaroon 18y ago
        Depends on the field. To my knowledge, no religious beliefs conflict with any work being done in computer science. (Maybe some AI or something.) On the other hand, certain very commonly held beliefs would totally hinder work in biology or possibly physics.
      - ltbarcly 18y ago
        I agree, but that is not surprising to me. I suspect that Knuth and the others would be able to fully follow an argument against holding the beliefs they do, but that they would short-circuit it by 'answering' any such argument with the idea that religion is somehow a special topic not subject to rational inquiry, or that religion is based on 'faith' or something. To me these arguments are silly and obvious rationalizations, but some people cannot bring themselves to honestly evaluate religion using the same vigor they bring to other fields.
  - ltbarcly 18y ago
    Actually, the leading thinkers in all times were very often either atheists are extremely a-religious compared to contemporaries. They had to be publicly orthodox. That is because there has never been a religious authority with the power to do so that has refrained from using the force of the state to enforce orthodoxy.

xlnt 18y ago

That's true. I bet YC is much more atheist than the general population. But I know a religious YC poster who's hesitant to express that kind of idea here; I also bet YC is a bit more religious than it appears.

deleted 18y ago
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tjr 18y ago
I think it's also interesting that, up until the past century or so, many well-educated people were also openly religious. To wit, holding religious beliefs does not prevent one from doing excellent academic work... religion does not go hand-in-hand with stupidity or ineptitude.
- crocus 18y ago
  I think you'd have to say "did not" rather than "does not." 200 years ago many well-educated people owned slaves. That doesn't allow us to conclude much about whether slave ownership and intelligence/education are intrinsically compatible.
  - tjr 18y ago
    I think you'd have to say "does not" rather than "did not." Don Knuth is Lutheran, and has done some of the most excellent academic work of anyone alive today. Guy Steele holds Christian beliefs of some sort, and his work has been extremely influential in the programming world. Just two examples off the top of my head, but I think enough to keep the verb in the present tense. We would be remiss to claim that religious beliefs imply academic stupidity. We would also be remiss to claim that lack of religious beliefs imply academic stupidity.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      Depends on the field. To my knowledge, no religious beliefs conflict with any work being done in computer science. (Maybe some AI or something.) On the other hand, certain very commonly held beliefs would totally hinder work in biology or possibly physics.
    - ltbarcly 18y ago
      I agree, but that is not surprising to me. I suspect that Knuth and the others would be able to fully follow an argument against holding the beliefs they do, but that they would short-circuit it by 'answering' any such argument with the idea that religion is somehow a special topic not subject to rational inquiry, or that religion is based on 'faith' or something. To me these arguments are silly and obvious rationalizations, but some people cannot bring themselves to honestly evaluate religion using the same vigor they bring to other fields.
- ltbarcly 18y ago
  Actually, the leading thinkers in all times were very often either atheists are extremely a-religious compared to contemporaries. They had to be publicly orthodox. That is because there has never been a religious authority with the power to do so that has refrained from using the force of the state to enforce orthodoxy.