OSU Student Outraged Over IQ Question for Atheists, Christians
A student at Ohio State University is outraged after an online quiz for an undergraduate psychology class implied that atheists are more intelligent than Christians.
The student, who chose to remain anonymous, told Campus Reform that the question was part of an online homework quiz for psychology 1100, a general education class. The question asked: "Theo has an IQ of 100 and Aine has an IQ of 125. Which of the following statements do you expect to be true?"
Out of four options, the correct answer was reportedly: "Aine is an atheist, while Theo is a Christian."
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As Campus Reform reports, it is possible that the quiz was created by a teacher's assistant rather than a professor, but that has not satisfied the concern of one anonymous OSU student who sees a bias against Christianity in U.S. colleges. "I understand that colleges have a liberal spin on things so it didn't surprise me to see the question, which is a sad thing," the student said, adding that they believe it is impossible to determine someone's IQ based solely on their religion.
"Colleges will tolerate pretty much any religion other than Christianity," the student continued. "If colleges really want to give everyone a fair shot, they should stay away from making comments about any religion."
The university has yet to respond regarding the take-home quiz question. Hemant Mehta, the blogger behind "The Friendly Atheist," contested criticism of the quiz in a recent blog post, writing that the "bad quiz question" was most likely a mistake that should be corrected.
"[…] it's not worth the big fuss. It's a one-off question that should be simple to correct, so let the professor correct it [or get rid of it altogether]. There's no reason to jump to the conclusion that it's somehow evidence of anti-Christian discrimination," Mehta wrote.
Mehta added that he was not opposed to students challenging their beliefs in a college classroom setting.
"[…] a psychology or sociology class is a great place to talk about the benefits and drawbacks of religion. If there's evidence of religion hurting us as a society, then we should talk about it. A college classroom is the perfect environment in which to challenge your beliefs, whatever they are."
