If you are part of RF and explore this forum a bit, you would notice that since of recent times the frequency of Atheists alluding to theists as dumb
I haven't noticed this.
A lot of circumventing language will probably be used to call them plain dumb. Some claim they are mentally handicapped, and some "uneducated",
Mentally handicapped and uneducated are very different things.
There is nothing wrong with calling someone uneducated as long as it is the truth.
I, for example in uneducated in physics, genetics, etc.
At best, I have a working knowledge of the basic ideas as common knowledge. But don't ask me to write down einstein's field equations or whatever.
That doesn't make me "dumb". That makes me
ignorant on those specific subjects.
Are you sure you aren't confusing "dumb" with "ignorant" in your entire OP here?
Of course there will be some atheists who would say "not all atheists do this" which is true.
I would like to understand if there are any proper research done in modern times, and in retrospect that atheists who claim to be "scientific" would have to contribute to this discussion. The world has people from all walks of life and progress or even science has and will swing this way and that way in advancement. Todays big shot may not be tomorrows. For example, the UK was the empire where the sun never sets, and now the United States which is a fairly new country maybe a few hundred times more sophisticated in military and economic spreading of their wings. Some time ago, it was the Ottoman Empire. Long ago it was the Romans. Well, this could go on, and you get the gist.
Thus, are there any good researches done that could contribute to this discussion, this way or that way?
(I will just for the sake of it put up a poll here though I believe they contain a lot of baggage, hawthorn effects, and voters cloud).
Thanks in advance.
Demographics show that there is a correlation between atheism and higher education.
In the science world, there are also more atheists then in the general population.
If we take further subsets of those scientists and only count the "elite" ones, then the amount of atheists goes up further still.
I don't think however that this says anything about intelligence. I think it speaks more to how education might expose false religious beliefs, or at least make it harder to maintain belief.
So I think these numbers speak to the inner conflict of a person who holds religious beliefs on the one hand, while having potentially contradicting scientific knowledge in the other.
Then there's also the type of reasoning that scientists are trained in. One of the basics is "question everything" and the importance of evidence. Which is kind of the opposite of many religions, which instead tend to rather impose "question nothing and just believe" and how to believe on faith instead of evidence.
That conflict might also likely mean that the very religious will not be interested in even pursuing a scientific career as they see it as "bad" because of that.
So in short, I don't think that the average IQ among the religious is necessarily lower then among atheists. I think a lot of it is upbringing and education.