Article January 3, 2000 Issue

A GENETIC BASIS FOR INTELLIGENCE?

Ronald S. Douglass

The opposing nature of the spiritual and material views of man is perhaps nowhere more striking than in their different perspectives on intelligence. Basing its spiritual perspective in the Bible, Christian Science explains that intelligence comes from God, the one infinite, omnipotent, divine Mind of the universe. The book of Job, for example, says of God, "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth" (23:13).

Since God is also Spirit, intelligence must be wholly spiritual, not dependent on matter for its origin, manifestation, enhancement, or perpetuation. Man, the eternal likeness or outcome of God, divine Mind, reflects this intelligence continuously, boundlessly, eternally.

From a strictly material perspective, on the other hand, popular and scientific thinking about intelligence has for centuries regarded the brain as the seat of all human and animal intelligence. In the past several decades, molecular biologists have endeavored to find a genetic basis for at least some aspects of intelligence in the functions of the brain. TIME magazine recently reported on research at Princeton University which found that the memory and learning ability of a strain of mice was enhanced by manipulating the DNA in the mice's brains ("Smart Genes?" Sept. 13, 1999). The significance and implications of the Princeton results are, to be sure, controversial and do not reflect a consensus of those who think of intelligence in physiological and material terms. More important, however, this study challenges spiritual thinkers to understand more deeply and demonstrate more convincingly that intelligence has in reality a spiritual basis.

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