One false representation of religious people in general is that they are ignorant of science and reason. Not only does this charge, at the very least, not apply to all religious people, but some make non sequitur and red herring claims about religion, religious people, atheism, and science after hearing such claims. An article on Big Think that I saw recently explained how Finnish scientists at the University of Helsinki concluded that religious people fail to comprehend basic issues about the material world. I want to analyze a couple of excerpts from the brief article and explain what conclusions can't be logically drawn from them.
I will begin with this quote:
"The Finnish scientists also concluded that not only did they not understand nature and the biological world clearly, religious people tended to anthropomorphize, ascribing human qualities like feelings to inanimate objects such as rocks, wind and the like. They would agree with statements like 'stones sense the cold'."
It is just objectively illogical to say that religious people have a very flawed grasp of science simply by being religious. Now, they may object to contemporary theories about origins or what lies beyond the domain of science, but this does not mean that they do not themselves understand anything about nature or biology with clarity.
I have never met a single religious person who told me that objects which seem inanimate have minds that perceive and experience mental states--and, logically speaking, my inability to perceive a conscious mind in many material objects does not prove they don't have that mental dimension. Christianity, at the very least, does not teach that stones experience qualia (qualia refers to subjective, conscious mental experiences). Also, this excerpt seems to contain an admission that mind-body dualism is true!
The article then brings up studies which it claims presented evidence that religious people are less intelligent than the non-religious:
"Previous studies also concluded that religious people were, in general, less analytical and might have lower IQs, but also tended to be happier and more generous than non-believers."
Whether or not this is true, it is a total red herring to the veracity of any particular religion. The claimed stupidity of some religious people (some of them are certainly unintelligent, but not all) has nothing to do with whether or not God exists, whether or not any theological system can be known to be true, or whether or not reason is compatible with any religion or type of theism. Yes, I'm all for identifying and exposing the stupidity of some religious (and non-religious) people! But I'm not going to commit fallacies as I do so.
Studies like this one are sometimes broadcasted on the Internet as some trump card in a debate about theism. But really, they are at most of very little relevance to actual philosophy and logic. People need to be careful to not extrapolate information from these studies to stereotype all people of a certain group--if the conclusions about the test group are even true to begin with--and they need to remember what does and does not follow from them.
[1]. http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/study-religious-people-struggle-to-understand-the-physical-world?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1505140881
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