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Is it any wonder that the American Atheists organization has been silent concerning the [https://creation.com/15-questions 15 questions for evolutionists] of the [[Question Evolution! Campaign]]? Besides being poor spellers the American Atheists organization's staff is probably poor when it comes to science as well!<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-proof-that-atheism-is-stupid.html More proof that atheism is stupid. American Atheists organization badly embarrasses itself]</ref>}}
Is it any wonder that the American Atheists organization has been silent concerning the [https://creation.com/15-questions 15 questions for evolutionists] of the [[Question Evolution! Campaign]]? Besides being poor spellers the American Atheists organization's staff is probably poor when it comes to science as well!<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-proof-that-atheism-is-stupid.html More proof that atheism is stupid. American Atheists organization badly embarrasses itself]</ref>}}
== Atheists mispelling the word atheist, atheism, intelligence and the United States ==
''See also:'' [[American atheism and intelligence]] and [[Atheism, intelligence and the General Social Survey]]
[[File:Atheism, intelligence and the General Social Survey.png|thumbnail|right|300px|right|Citing data from the [[General Social Survey]] (GSS), [[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] writes: "..the two most common types of atheists are the High Church atheists with +2[[Standard deviation|SD]] [[IQ]]s (128+) and Low Church atheists with -2SD IQs (65-72). Note that the Low Church atheists actually outnumber the High Church atheists, 22.9 to 17.2 percent."<ref>[http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/01/mailvox-distribution-of-atheist.html Mailvox: The distribution of atheist intelligence]</ref> (click on the graph above to enlarge)]]
In the United States, social scientists define [[atheism]] in various ways which makes determining the number of atheists in the United States more difficult to determine.<ref>[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2012/01/how-many-americans-are-atheists-fewer-than-you-might-think/ ''How Many Americans are Atheists? Fewer than You Might Think''] by Bradley Wright, January 26, 2012</ref> See also: [[Definition of atheism]] and [[Attempts to dilute the definition of atheism]] and [[Definitions of Atheist and Agnostic|Definitions of atheist and agnostic]]
Atheism, as defined by the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', and other [[philosophy]] reference works, is the denial of the existence of [[God]].<ref>Multiple references:
*Smart, J. J. C. (August 8, 2011). [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism "Atheism and agnosticism"]. ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Retrieved July 17, 2014.
*Sarfati, Jonathan, Ph.D. (23 June 2007). [https://creation.com/atheism-is-more-rational "Atheism is more rational?"]. Retrieved July 17, 2014. See [[Creation Ministries International]], [[Jonathan Sarfati]].
*Day, Donn R. (2007). [http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm "Atheism - etymology"]. Retrieved July 15, 2014.</ref>
In his article ''How Many Americans are Atheists? Fewer than You Might Think'', Bradley Wright wrote:
{{cquote|Another quality measure is offered by the [http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/ General Social Survey], probably the best-known, most rigorous social survey out there. It gives respondents a series of statements about their beliefs in God, and it asks which come closest to what they believe. The 2010 survey found that:
• 3% of Americans “don’t believe in God.”
• (Another 6% reported that they “don’t know whether there is a God and don’t believe there is any way to find out,” i.e., [[agnosticism|agnostics]].)<ref>[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2012/01/how-many-americans-are-atheists-fewer-than-you-might-think/ ''How Many Americans are Atheists? Fewer than You Might Think''] by Bradley Wright, January 26, 2012</ref>}}
The [[General Social Survey]] (GSS) is the "largest project funded by the Sociology Program of the [[National Science Foundation]]. Except for the U.S. Census, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences."<ref>[http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/About+GSS/ About the General Social Survey]</ref>
As you can see above, the social scientists at the General Social Survey do not define as strictly as encyclopedias of [[philosophy]] and many other reference works.<ref>Multiple references:
*Smart, J. J. C. (August 8, 2011). [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism "Atheism and agnosticism"]. ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Retrieved July 17, 2014.
*Sarfati, Jonathan, Ph.D. (23 June 2007). [https://creation.com/atheism-is-more-rational "Atheism is more rational?"]. Retrieved July 17, 2014. See [[Creation Ministries International]], [[Jonathan Sarfati]].
*Day, Donn R. (2007). [http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm "Atheism - etymology"]. Retrieved July 15, 2014.</ref> As a result, in reporting their survey results there is some overlap with individuals who some may consider to be merely agnostics.
Citing data from the General Social Survey, [[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] writes about atheist [[Intelligence testing|intelligence quotient]] (IQ) scores:
{{cquote|"..the two most common types of atheists are the High Church atheists with +2[[Standard deviation|SD]] [[IQ]]s (128+) and Low Church atheists with -2SD IQs (65-72). Note that the Low Church atheists actually outnumber the High Church atheists, 22.9 to 17.2 percent...
Now, the statistically naive might look at this chart, note that the +2SD theists only account for 3.5 percent of the theistic population, and assume that this means there are more highly intelligent atheists than highly intelligent theists. This is not the case. As it happens, there are 11.4x more +2SD theists who either know God exists or believe God exists despite having the occasional doubt than there are +2SD atheists who don't believe God exists.<ref>[http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/01/mailvox-distribution-of-atheist.html Mailvox: The distribution of atheist intelligence]</ref>}}
In a 2010 article, Beale writes: "Never forget that the smarter and more knowledgeable act put on by many atheists is inevitably nothing more than that, an act, and one that has absolutely no basis in empirical reality except for a three-point average advantage in IQ which is almost surely a statistical artifact of their insignificant numbers and self-selected identification.<ref>[http://voxday.blogspot.com/2010/04/always-call-their-bluff.html Always call their bluff]</ref>
=== Weak atheism and individuals with low intelligence ===
''See also:'' [[Weak atheism and intelligence]]
[[Weak Atheism]] (sometimes referred to as "negative [[atheism]]") describes a belief system and philosophical stance whereby a person lacks a belief in God/gods. Using this very broad definition of definition of atheism, there are atheists who argue that babies are atheists (Of course, atheists cannot verify what is in the minds of babies).<ref>[https://carm.org/are-babies-born-atheists Are babies born atheists?] by Matt Slick</ref> Also, using this very broad definition of definition of atheism, it could be argued that individuals with severe mental disabilities and/or individuals born with extremely low IQs are more apt to be weak atheists (Of course, this also would be difficult to verify in many cases). This helps explain why the General Social Survey (GSS) data has twice as many low IQ atheists as high IQ atheists.<ref>[http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/01/mailvox-distribution-of-atheist.html Mailvox: The distribution of atheist intelligence]</ref>
=== United States, atheism, socioeconomic data and intelligence ===
''See also:'' [[American atheism and intelligence#American atheists, socioeconomic data and intelligence|American atheists, socioeconomic data and intelligence]] and [[Western atheism and race]]
In 2015, ''BloombergView'' reported concerning the [[United States]]:
{{cquote|According to a much-discussed 2012 report from the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life, only 3 percent of U.S. atheists and agnostics are black, 6 percent are Hispanic, and 4 percent are Asian. Some 82 percent are white. (The relevant figures for the population at large at the time of the survey were 66 percent white, 11 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian.)
...Craig Keener, in his huge review of claims of miracles in a wide variety of cultures, concludes that routine rejection of the possibility of the [[supernatural]] represents an impulse that is [[Secular Europe|deeply Eurocentric]].<ref>[http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-27/the-atheism-gap The Atheism Gap] By Stephen L. Carter, ''BloombergView'', Mar 27, 2015 4:26 PM EDT</ref>}}
Research in the United States indicates that the daily pressures associated with being in the low income bracket reduces IQ by 13 points.<ref>[https://www.businessinsider.com/poverty-effect-on-intelligence-2013-8 Poverty Stresses The Brain So Much That It's Like Losing 13 IQ Points], ''Business Insider'', 2013</ref> African-American and Hispanic Americans are more likely to live in poverty in the United States. The poverty rate for Blacks and Hispanics is more than double that of non-Hispanic Whites.<ref>[http://federalsafetynet.com/us-poverty-statistics.html U.S poverty rates]</ref> In addition, schooling increases IQ scores and many racial minorities in the United attend low quality, inner city public schools with high drop out rates.<ref>[http://www.pnas.org/content/109/2/425.full.pdf Schooling in adolescence raises IQ scores]</ref><ref>[https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16 Drop out rates]</ref>