Vox Day: Atheists who brag about their IQ = Nazis! [updated]

Vox Day

This must be the most desperate anti-atheistic argument I’ve seen in quite a while. Still determined to prove how atheists are really just a bunch of snobby dummies or something, Vox Day now goes ahead and declares that atheists should stop trying to praise their superior intelligence (which they don’t) because, hey, many high-ranking Nazi officials were smart, too. Seriously:

Not that it is likely to, but the results of the IQ tests performed by an American Army psychologist at the Nuremberg Trials should put at least a slight damper on the often-heard atheist appeals to intelligence. Especially since at 121.72, the average IQs of the National Socialist leadership was more than a standard deviation higher than the 103.09 mean IQ reported for atheists:

IQ of Nazi leaders, cited from: Gilbert, G. M.: Nuremberg Diary. New York: Signet Book 1947, p. 34; Wechsler-Bellevue

Hjalmar Schacht, Reich Minister of Economics: IQ 143
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Foreign Minister of Germany: IQ 141
Hermann Göring, President of the Reichstag and Reich Minister of Aviation: IQ 138
Karl Dönitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine: IQ 138
Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production: IQ 128
Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: IQ 127
Alfred Rosenberg, Commissar for Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the German National Socialist Workers Party: IQ 127
Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer: IQ 120

In other words, if we are to take seriously the idea that the reported 5.95-point IQ advantage enjoyed by the "not-at-all religious" over the "very religious" means that we should be inclined to reject the theistic perspective [something that no atheist has ever said, you dishonest ass —JM], then surely the 18.63 advantage of the National Socialists proves we should all convert to Nazi atheism.

Yep; in Vox Day’s world, those who (supposedly) brag about their intelligence are really no better than Hitler’s cronies. Which, of course, brings about some rather glaring implications into play, considering the fact that Vox Day’s about as big an intellectual blowhard as they come … not that he mentions that.

It’s also amusing, though, how Vox constantly misinterprets atheists’ casual and mostly facetious trumpeting of that tiny IQ advantage – which any atheist will readily and dismissively affirm is just about utterly meaningless (again contrary to Vox’s claims) – as some sort of sign that atheists are pointy-headed elitists who dismiss anyone with a below-“genius” quotient or something. This speaks rather poorly about his understanding of actual atheists (as opposed to that bizarre strawman he so loves to go all bombastic against).

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UPDATE: (04/19/11 9:45 PM) – It now occurs to me, as it often does, that this was possibly merely an attempt at humor on Vox’s part. Which would make his post would be even more deplorable, given its stupidity, dishonesty, and additional drawback of being pathetically unfunny.