Re: "IQ and Being Religious" thread. IQ Test included

[flyingfish]

Inspired by the IQ thread. Poll results are private.

iqtest.dk/main.swf

 

[kristie_m]

man…you could go blind looking at that thing!!! I was never all that great at spacial relations. (based on my abysmal geometry grades in high school!) Seems to me IQ ought to be about more than just your ability to recognize patterns, though.

 

[chevalier]

Mensa believes IQ is all about spatial stuff or at least spatial stuff is the only fair way to evaluate intelligence. I disagree with them not only because I hate all that spatial stuff and it wants me to bite my hands, but also because they are rather clearly attempting to evaluate only one aspect of bra(name removed by moderator)ower while still giving it a more total character. Even maths is not all about geometry, let alone intelligence itself! I’ll take the test after returning from church (I’m going soon)… or tomorrow. Oh, and I think I’ve seen that test already, but long ago.

 

[Lutheranteach]

I’m more of a believer in multiple intelligence theory rather than those based on one specific thing, but either way I’m doing all right.

 

[flyingfish]

Testing patterns is the only way to make the test “fair” to people who speak different languages.

 

[jpjd]

I got a 115. I timed-out before I got to the last two questions. But now I feel cross-eyed!

But I don’t see any correlation between being religious (or not) and IQ. Being religious crosses all IQ’s, don’t you think?

 

[The_Bucket]

I’m usually an appalling failure at spatial relationships and this test pretty much proved it. I’m awful at both math and art… and construction for that matter. However, I am a wizard at writing, speaking and politicking. I recall taking this kind of test in elementary school and scoring around 100. I was flabbergasted. I took an “alternative” IQ test that didn’t do just spatial relationships and scored about 125-130.

Took the test through 30 questions and then go so frustrated I just randomly selected them at the end because they didn’t make much sense to me and I wasn’t about to waste a ton of time on it. Looks like random selection is a better method than trying since I did about 10 points better than I did in school!

 

[iluvmybabies]

lol ran through it got 100, lol, started seeing dots haha!! oh well!!! hehe

 

[Bluegoat]

Yeah, I didn’t like this test either. I did fine, but like many others, my strength has never been those kinds of spatial relationships. Saying visual pattern recognition is the only “fair” way to me is just saying that a good IQ test is impossible.

 

[kevinsgirl]

got 115 but did do some guessing since I didn’t have 40 minutes to spend on it–was kinda fun in a brain exercising way…

 

[revert_jen]

But I don’t see any correlation between being religious (or not) and IQ. Being religious crosses all IQ’s, don’t you think?

Since this forum has religious people and non-religious people, I don’t see how this poll has anything to do with the correlation anyway.

Anyway, unless people can agree on a definition of “intelligence” (they can’t), it is pointless to try to measure it. I personally feel that whatever you are measuring in a test without using language, it cannot possibly be complete intelligence, since language is a good part of our brain and a hugely important part of what constitutes intelligence. Anyway, Mensa has decided that intelligence is the ability to do puzzles, so that’s what they test.

And it’s not sour grapes on my part because I did pretty well.

–Jen

 

[Bluegoat]

Since this forum has religious people and non-religious people, I don’t see how this poll has anything to do with the correlation anyway.

Anyway, unless people can agree on a definition of “intelligence” (they can’t), it is pointless to try to measure it. I personally feel that whatever you are measuring in a test without using language, it cannot possibly be complete intelligence, since language is a good part of our brain and a hugely important part of what constitutes intelligence. Anyway, Mensa has decided that intelligence is the ability to do puzzles, so that’s what they test.

And it’s not sour grapes on my part because I did pretty well.

–Jen

I wonder if this says something about the type of people who join Mensa? Is it like a big club of math puzzle enthusiasts?? How terrible!

 

[Sina]

teehee I only had 10 minutes before heading out for lunch to do the test so I took the first (easy obviously) 20 questions seriously and the rest I hit random answers. I got an average IQ for this, I am assuming the last 20 weren’t supposed to be easy for everyone anyways.

I HATE puzzles like this too. Loved all your comments.

 

[chevalier]

Testing patterns is the only way to make the test “fair” to people who speak different languages.

But it makes things unfair between science and arts people. In fact, I always get much higher scores when some actual numbers are involved, not just language. This whole geometry puts me way down (the thing I hated the most at maths, which was my most hated subject… after P.E., that is ).

 

[kimmielittle]

Hiyas

I think what the OP was doing is countering a recent post by an atheist who put a doctored graph up that suggested religious people have low IQ’s low 80-90’s ].

In other words if you believe in God, you are substandard in intelligence.

I think, I did a fair job at debunking the doctored graph…But the thread got closed. not because of my responces]

I hope this helps.

Thanks for this thread:thumbsup:

 

[flyingfish]

But it makes things unfair between science and arts people. In fact, I always get much higher scores when some actual numbers are involved, not just language. This whole geometry puts me way down (the thing I hated the most at maths, which was my most hated subject… after P.E., that is ).

I guess so, I’ll try to find a more balanced IQ test

 

[revert_jen]

I think what the OP was doing is countering a recent post by an atheist who put a doctored graph up that suggested religious people have low IQ’s low 80-90’s ].

Well, it still runs into the problem that until you can define intelligence you can’t measure it. At the end of my 400-level cognitive psych class in college, I decided for myself that it really was impossible to measure what people consider “intelligence” because:
a) We’re (as individuals) not sure what we mean when we say it
b) Different people within the same society have different ideas about which parts are most important, and there is no arbitrator for that dispute
c) Different ages have different ideas about it as well, with the things loosely considered by average people today to make up “intelligence” vastly different than what they would have been even 100 years ago, much less 1000 years ago
d) Different cultures have different needs, and therefore the aspects of intelligence that are considered most important are different between different cultures
e) It really is quite difficult to measure long-term memory in the format of an IQ test, but many people would consider it to be one of the components of intelligence

I have changed my mind about many things since I graduated college, but this isn’t one of them.

–Jen

 

[MomaMary8]

I answered the question based upon my known IQ, not the internet test. I agree that it doesn’t test in enough different ways.

Many try to prove their point by insisting the reason that others don’t agree is due to a lack of intelligence. Really, it is a lack of intellingence that that causes a person to feel the need to prove they are correct. …just MHO

 

[kimmielittle]

Well, it still runs into the problem that until you can define intelligence you can’t measure it. At the end of my 400-level cognitive psych class in college, I decided for myself that it really was impossible to measure what people consider “intelligence” because:
a) We’re (as individuals) not sure what we mean when we say it
b) Different people within the same society have different ideas about which parts are most important, and there is no arbitrator for that dispute
c) Different ages have different ideas about it as well, with the things loosely considered by average people today to make up “intelligence” vastly different than what they would have been even 100 years ago, much less 1000 years ago
d) Different cultures have different needs, and therefore the aspects of intelligence that are considered most important are different between different cultures
e) It really is quite difficult to measure long-term memory in the format of an IQ test, but many people would consider it to be one of the components of intelligence

I have changed my mind about many things since I graduated college, but this isn’t one of them.

–Jen

I totally agree
Also, IQ doesn’t measure one’s motivation toward succeeding.

The Atheist, I was referencing, used a doctored graph trying to say a lower IQ correlated to people of faith…you and I know this is rubbish. Many Atheists like to see themselves as some elitist group of intellectuals and actually use this as a tool to try to win over youth.

It has been tried on me many times.

 

[Magdalena09]

OMG that test made me start having to blink a lot and close my eyes for a bit and reopen them before trying to evaluate each question.

I scored slightly lower than this than I did on the IQ tests I took in past years, but the other ones were not strictly patterns/spatial relations.

I do agree with the poster saying that there isn’t a true way to measure intelligence in a way that actually benefits us because of all the different factors involved. I do know that there is a correlation between IQ score and intelligence in some ways, because we know that people who are mentally retarded (ulgh, hate that word now that it has a negative connotation to it but hope everyone knows I mean absolutely NO offense by it!) are generally tested early early on because of early signs and so there has been a cut-off score established, I think it is anyone with an IQ score below 75 or so is considered retarded. Of course then you have people who are autistic and score low on IQ tests who are also “savants” and have extremely high ability in one isolated area… as if a certain part of their brain was unlocked in a way others who score considerably higher on IQ tests are not.

I watched a movie on autism once that showed how people on the less-functional end of the autism spectrum are often able to do a lot more than the general population thinks if enough outside-the-box things are explored. It was really cool, I wish I remembered the name of it.

This also reminds me of some flaws with standardized tests in general… some people for whatever reason read a bit more slowly then others, even though they make good or better grades than those who are faster readers. Since standardized tests are timed, it automatically puts fast readers are a considerable advantage. I always wondered about that and if speed you can read at is a reliable measure of how smart you are.