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I was on youtube a few days ago and came across a lot of Atheist videos refering to independent studies showing the higher one's IQ or Education Level, the less one has any belief or associated with religion. There are big names in video some are Nobel prize laurets, Scientists, Mathematicians, Businessmen and Actors. All are very famous i.e Albert Einstein, Warren Buffet, Issac Asimov, Lance Armstrong, Angelena Jolie and many many more. So I want to know what you think of God. A God which Punishes and Rewards. A God as potrayed by your or any religion?

Please NOTE
I agree this is a poorly conceived poll. There should be more options.I just wanted to have your input. You are the closest thing to a scientific community i have access to right now. I can't post this question on a porn or a dating website as those are not my target audience. So i apologize

I defo believe in God, and I feeltouched by that every day, but not in the way you describe. I have no religion and I don't believe god punishes and rewards, I'm more of a God's microwave kind of a person.

I know many very intelligent people who believe and practise, although they are more likely to be in an arts discipline, or I suppose most likely theologians! I was brought up a Roman Catholic, but no longer practise (for various specific reasons), and now attend an Anglican Church (a middle of the road country parish although my preference is for Anglo-Catholicism). I know very few intelligent people - particularly academics - who attend church without giving very serious and regular thought to their beliefs, exploring things they are told and generally taking an interest in theology.

The poll doesn't really reflect the range of beliefs - I mean "I believe in God of my religion" - just because one may believe in God it does not have to formed into organised religion, that is a completely different thing. Surely the poll should be a choice between "I don't believe in any God" vs "I believe in some form of God or Gods"...

Lies, Damn Lies and statistics!!!

These polls are a bit meaningless as a gauge of opinions anyway, as the percentages mean nothing without knowing the number of people who actually voted. 31% of what number??? Of 5? Of 500 votes? The percentages don't relate to the number of thread views or the post counts either. An intrinsically bad poll design!

Yeah, and people could just go on and repeat vote as many times as they feel like. What about Oprah! she's got to be a leading light in anyone's book and she believes in god. The blurb in the preamble is weighted too, it's loaded for people to say they don't believe in god, or else look dim and loose a connection with glam slebs such as Jolie. I mean, do I really care if Jolie belives in god or not? Is that relevant to something as important as this? can't be serious research, surely.

ooh no actually Eska, I tried to cheat on one of these polls once to test that theory and vote a second time, but it wouldn't let me! They might be crap polls, but they're fraud-free!!:-)

I believe in God. infact the more i study biology, the stronger is my belief. the complexity of for example just the human body down to the genes, is just incredible. but everyones faith is personal to their own. if someone does not believe in God, each to their own. Sometimes i think its incredible the whole universe, how big it is, and that i exist, and if i exist then its not impossible to believe that God exists aswell.

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And the moral of this story is never try to do a poorly-conceived poll around a bunch of PhD students, as they will tear apart your methodology and response categories.

(I thought it was just me that found the question clearly weighted and the option likely to exclude a lot of people!)

Read some Dawkins Lara ;)

Regards Wolfe

Thanks every one for participating. Your thoughts are greatly valued and appreciated. Representing a very small intelligent cross-section of humanity i understand your words hold a great value. I would rather listen to you folks than my religious leader/priest/pope/Immam/Mullah. As scientists you make the impossible 'Possible'. You do miracles every day. Thank You Very Much.

Ok, seriously, I don't get you. Why did you do this poll? How many people at all voted? Is this for a study? (if it is, you should have made that clear) Secondly, what makes you think people here are 'scientists'? And..i really dont know what to write...i find this whole exercise you went through a lil pointless.

Remo I'm not a scientist, but Idon't think that makes my contribution any less valid. Also, I think the assumption that PhD students, or acadmics, are more intelligent than other people and would have a better handle on this topic is a bit skewed.

Dawkins is pretty bad on philosophy actually, he should stick to what he is good at ie biology. Without going into too much detail (I have my research to work on!), having read a few of his books on the religion topic I find him misinformed, and his understanding of philosophy seems rather underdeveloped. His last book was a farcical polemic (a lot of his quotes come from wiki!), and has been slated by world-leading philosphers.

Here here!  The more I study biology and medical science, the more I think that complex processes cannot simply be put down to coincidence. The fact that we don't fully understand the human body is, on its own,  an indication that there must be a spiritual input. It's just amazing, I mean consider the Krebs cycle for example! How can that have come about by chance?