Okay readers (Mom), if you're not dead or mentally retarded from holding your breath this long, take a deep one now. I'm finally going to compose my piece(peace) on that subject which I've been researching. I fear I've made it sound as though I've spent countless hours translating the Dead Sea Scrolls when all I've really done is look up a few online articles and scriptures from various religious texts. See, my lack of posts is more about my lack of commitment to myself than anything else...but that's an entirely different subject. Tonight's subject is Intelligence.
The 'g' factor. (Yes, that was an incomplete sentence within my monologue on intelligence) The idea that there is a general factor underlying any activity requiring mental effort is controversial at best. There is a positive correlation among tests meant to measure congnitive function, but cognitive function is not necessarily tantamount in our modern definition of intelligence. Psychologists Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardner purport our intellect to be made up of many different and multiple intelligences, including (but not limited to) logical, spatial, kinesthetic, rhythmic, and interpersonal. It's romantic to think that whatever one is gifted at (for we do, truly, all have something we do well) can be defined as intelligence in one category or another. However, in some ways, I worry that this definition is too much in keeping with the modern-day Little League rules where everybody plays and everbody wins: ego boosting, but not very grounded in reality. But how, then, should we define the indefinable?
"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing." As the tale goes, after a search for the most intelligent man alive, in which many men spouted knowledge on all sorts of subjects and demonstrated expertise in various areas, Socrates deems himself to hold the position based on a *lack* of knowledge. We all hate know-it-alls. One of my biggest pet-peeves is having a discussion with someone about something I know like the back of my hand (because I've had a unique life experience, or because I spent years studying it in college, etc.) and having that person tell me, without any foundation whatsoever, what that thing is really like. And because of said peeve, I'm always very careful to defer to others when I don't know what I'm talking about, admit when I don't have a clue, and ask a lot of questions. Do I think this makes me intelligent? Yeah. I kinda do. I know that even those things I know well are so vast that I can't know them completely. So I'm like Socrates, willing and able to learn.
Willingness is important here, but what of ability? Is someone less able to learn automatically less intelligent than I am? It's been a long time since I read Flowers for Algernon, but on the subject of intelligence, it's a classic that can't be left out of this one-sided discussion. In case you're not familiar with the story, Algernon is a mouse that undergoes surgery to enhance its intelligence. Charlie Gordon, the main character, is a mentally disabled man who is the first human to follow suit. For a time, Charlie's life is greatly improved. He even develops a relationship with his former teacher, but then comes to surpass her intellectually to such a point that the two no longer have any common ground. Eventually, the intellect begins to wear off. Charlie, as a genius, watches Algernon's decline (and death), frantically trying to find a way to prevent the same from happening to him. The story raises many thought-provoking questions. Charlie becomes increasingly friendless and unhappy as his intelligence accumulates. Are intelligence and happiness mutually exclusive? If so, is intelligence even desirable? Or is ignorance truly bliss?
Where science and literature fail me, I look to religion. On this topic, I thought I would delve into a few seemingly unrelated texts: the Book of Mormon (This may come as a shock Mom, but I'm LDS [not to be confused with LSD, though both can be trippy]), the Quran, and the Rig Veda. These texts represent the three largest religious traditions in the world: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. You would think that three religions with such vastly different concepts of God wouldn't be uniform on any one topic, but I found the opposite. In fact, all three texts associate intelligence with moral action. The Rig Veda implores, "Be our lord and protect our deeds performed with intelligence," implying that some greater force should secure actions that are worthy only through the qualification of having been done with intelligence. The Quran backs up this idea, saying, "(Remember also) the 'Ad and the Thamud (people): clearly will appear to you from
(the traces) of their buildings (their fate): the Evil One made their deeds
alluring to them, and kept them back from the Path, though they were gifted with intelligence and skill (Al-Ankaboot, Chapter 29, Verse 38)." Here, intelligence and skill are assumed to be enough to keep one from falling into the enticements of the "Evil One". The Doctrine and Covenants (which is a scriptural companion to the Book of Mormon) states, "All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light (Section 93, Verses 30-31). Here, as with the Quran, the agency of man is intertwined with the intelligence that God has placed in him.
So now that we've established that intelligence is perhaps moral rather than intellectual, let's define what it is, exactly. "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth was not created or made, neither can be (D&C Section 93, Verse 29)." We learn here that intelligence is the "light of truth" and that it exists independently from God. Sounds to me like a Platonic absolute. While God has the power (being God) to bestow intelligence (see Verses 30-31), He does not create it. In fact, though Mormonism purports that God is the Father of our Spirit bodies, it also refers to our state of pre-Spirit being as Intelligences: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones (Abraham [in the Pearl of Great Price, another scriptural companion] Chapter 3, Verse 22)." So Intelligences were organized even before God created Spirit bodies. The Rig Veda seems to concur that intelligence is not dependent on a higher power. "Intelligence is the mightiest and nothing is beyond its reach." The "mightiest" leaves no room for misinterpretation. God is not mightier than intelligence. How do we, then, as mere humans, access something mightier than God?
The Quran explains that God gives us intelligence as a gift: "It is He Who brought you froth from the wombs of your mothers when ye knew nothing; and He gave you hearing and sight and intelligence and affections: that ye may give thanks to Allah (Chapter 16, Verse 78)." As we read earlier, the Doctrine and Covenants is in agreement: "All truth is in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. Behold, here is the agency of man (...) and they receive not the light." God 'places' intelligence within us so that we may recognize the "light of truth". There is no point to our existence if we do not have the intelligence necessary to exercise agency, making decisions good or bad. Here, we also learn that we are under condemnation if we do not receive the light of truth using the intelligence we have been given. Basically, then, we all have an equal ability to be intelligent, what with "that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto" each of us. Intelligence can be measured by the "light of truth" we receive. Those who are using their agency for the good are obviously more 'enlightened', if you will. In this version, intelligence is definitely desirable. In fact, existence itself is pointless without it. And if intelligence truly does align with morality, then it can, in fact, make us happier. So, while I might be pretty brainy in the critical thinking department, I'm really not all that smart when compared to millions of other people who are doing far more good in this world than I. How's that for some humble pie?
