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).

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