At Ohio State, Test Alleges That Atheists Are Smarter Than Christians

Undergraduate students at Ohio State University should know that atheists are smarter than Christians.

At least, that’s the viewpoint reflected on a for-credit homework quiz in a Psychology 1100 course. The assignment included the following question:

Theo has an IQ of 100 and Aine has an IQ of 125. Which of the following statements would you expect to be true?

Aine is an atheist, while Theo is a Christian.

Aine earns less money than Theo.

Theo is more liberal than Aine.

Theo is an atheist, while Aine is a Christian.

The correct statement–at least, the statement for which students receive credit–is the first answer. Atheists are, in one professor’s opinion, demonstrably smarter.

A student who is currently enrolled in the class was offended that this question would be included in a quiz at the taxpayer-funded school, and tipped off the watchdog group Campus Reform.

According to the Daily Caller:

“Colleges will tolerate pretty much any religion other than Christianity,” the student told Campus Reform. “If colleges really want to give everyone a fair shot, they should stay away from making comments about any religion.”

“How can you really measure which religion has a higher IQ?” the student added.

And before even one reader tries to tell me that this doesn’t matter, let me share the question raised by Mike Adams, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Dr. Adams asked:

“So, would it be permissible to force blacks to take a class teaching that blacks would have a lower IQ than white people?”

The Daily Caller also points out that Ohio State’s own policies prohibit discrimination against any religion or belief:

Ohio State has a very clear and strict policy banning discrimination of many, many kinds. Discrimination is forbidden based on “age, ancestry, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, military status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, HIV status, or veteran status.”

This is not the first time that Ohio State has become embroiled in a public relations snafu regarding religion. Its ex-president E. Gordon Gee, who collected $6.1 million from the school in fiscal year 2013, resigned his position after insulting the Roman Catholic Church–criticizing the negotiation tactics of Notre Dame administrators during discussions about joining the Big Ten, saying they weren’t good partners. In comments to the university Athletic Council in December 2012, he jokingly said the school’s priests were “holy on Sunday and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week.” To laughter, he said, “You just can’t trust those damn Catholics.”

The school’s marching band director was fired just this week after news broke of highly sexualized hazing rituals and raunchy band member nicknames. One female student who would sit on fellow band members’ laps and pretend to orgasm was called by the nickname “Squirt.” Other inappropriate nicknames referred to students’ large breasts or other body parts, and to one student’s Jewish lineage.