Why is belief in a God unintelligent?

It really doesn't matter to me what people believe. Its what people DO that matters to me. If a person fully supports the advancement of science, does everything they can to make humanity better, is skeptical and verifies all information against non biased, objective sources, and never refuses to accept new information because it defies preconceived notions then they can believe in anything they want. Even when a person doesnt evangelize, is kind to everyone, and is respectful of all beliefs, if their belief in a deity is not backed up by rational, objective evidence and it interferes with their ability to accept new information about the universe that might contradict a belief they have about that deity, then that is a problem.

I seem to usually have the biggest problem with dogmatic monotheists (especially western religion ones), followed by polythesists, followed by agnostic theists, followed by deists, followed by pantheists/panentheists (if you don't know the last two, look them up, they are an interesting "pro-god" position that you might agree with).

I find that Deists/pantheists/panentheists are usually pretty willing to say "I believe in a god but it really doesnt matter, lets learn some shit". Polytheists tend to be pretty open to new ideas (shit most of those religions have gods coming and going like crazy) and thus pretty open to science learning more about the world and adapting their deities to those discoveries. It seems like Monotheists (especially the "big 3") tend to be the group that is the most resistent to change, and the most likely to condemn someone else for having a different moral code (being gay is the most common, modern example, but you could look at mormonism for racism or some sects of Islam for hatred of non-muslims).

So as I said, its not whether or not someone believes in a deity that bothers me. Its whether or not that peson is skeptical and accepts new information and helps forward the human race as a whole. I have no desire to see people change beliefs, only to see people be more humane, more open to scientific discoveries, and less prone to being assholes to each other.

/r/DebateAnAtheist Thread