From the Editors February 4, 2013 ISSUE

Intelligent man

The Editors

How intelligent are we humans? How intelligent are we likely to become? A Stanford University educator and geneticist has contended we’re not as bright as we used to be and we are getting dimmer all the time. He theorizes that in pre-civilized times, only the most mentally nimble managed to survive and bequeath their genes to the next generations. But as civilization developed, life grew safer. The possibility of these less-intelligent individuals passing along their genes increased. These humans survived longer. Human beings, according to this theory, reached their intellectual peak 2,000 to 6,000 years ago. The downward slide then began.

Nothing of God's doing—and God's doings are always benign—goes unnoticed by Him.

Even if this theory wins a measure of acceptance in the research community, it still springs from a strictly physical, brain-based, perspective. It ignores entirely the view from a spiritual perspective. It overlooks the fact of all facts. There is a God. This God is pure Mind, the source of all intelligence throughout creation, including man, including each one of us. This unchanging spiritual intelligence never fades, and can never be separated from man. This intelligence is neither the result of conventional education nor the product of material evolution. Think of Christ Jesus. On one occasion he entered a temple and taught with no formal training. The response? Listeners marveled. “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (John 7:15 ).

It is impossible today for man to be distanced from ever-present intelligence. “The Science of being shows it to be impossible … for man to have an intelligence separate from his Maker” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 309 ). And God’s intelligence extends to not only knowing His creation, but also to being aware enough to grasp both who He is and what He does. A person might walk across a field and know who they are, but not what they do. They might, for example, have no awareness of how a single step impacts a rabbit den underfoot. But nothing of God’s doing—and God’s doings are always benign—goes unnoticed by Him. Not what is Grand-Canyon large. Not what is rabbit-den small.

If we believe intelligence sweeps across the centuries through evolutionary factors or educational developments, we may shrink before the question, “Is there enough intelligence to go around?” But if we discern the source of true intelligence—the one divine and infinite Mind of the universe—there will always be enough problem-solving understanding, emerging solutions, insight, and inspiration. Big as global concerns are, they are not bigger than God. They do not overmatch the infinite intelligence of endless Mind. Consider and cherish this key fact: Because there is pure Mind, there is intelligent man.

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