Top Five Most Religious U.S. States

[Gabu]

Weekly church attendance does not equal religiousness.

It does suggest strong (and probably likelier to be fundamentalist) religiousness, however.  The states listed there are ones that I do certainly associate with that description.

[Gabu]

Beyond the question of whether or not people with a lower IQ (which does not exactly equate to less intelligence overall) tend to be more religious, whose answer is "yes"... one ought to ask the obvious question in response to that: why exactly does that matter?  People with a lower IQ also tend to believe that the sky is blue and that 2 + 2 = 4.  Doesn't make those things false.  If that statement was an attempt to prove that atheism is the correct belief system, the originator of that statement really ought to rethink what he considers his own intelligence level to be, because he appears to be fit to believe in religion... by his admission, at least.

[Gabu]

But then religion is only worthwhile as a blanket, which is nice but rather naive. I suppose people can't be forced not to retreat to religion for comfort, but it baffles me why it is encouraged. Surely we should be facing our problems?

Hope is quite possibly the single most important thing for a human to possess, and religion is one of the biggest providers of it.