Dr. Younghoon Kim, the world’s highest IQ record holder (IQ 276), has publicly professed his Christian faith, declaring that Jesus Christ is God, the way, the truth, and the life! Renowned for his extraordinary intellect and leadership in global memory and neuroscience communities, his bold statement underscores the harmony between deep faith and exceptional intelligence.
Look, I don't want to rain on your parade, but I also kind of do.
There is no connection between high IQ and the skills it takes to determine whether (i) general theism is true and (ii) a particular religion is true. So, there's no connection between the likelihood that God exists (or that a particular religion is true) and the beliefs of an exceptionally high-IQ individual. If he doesn't recognize this, then it is evidence for the claim.
There are plenty of people with very high IQ who believe things without justification. The whole thing about humans being value-sensitive really adds to the confusion. There's no evidence that being able to solve IQ test problems better than other people solves our basic existential problems or makes us less prone to seeing the world in a way that helps us cope.
The value of this for Christians is really just social. "We've got a smarty on our side." It looks good for your team given that the debate over God's existence is so undecided. But if you really think about it, that's more evidence against God's existence. If there is a free, all-powerful, all-loving being in control, we should expect having a high-IQ person on your side to be pretty meaningless, since it wouldn't take a genius to know that God exists -- that is, our knowing about the existence of an all-loving God shouldn't be that kind of problem.
If Christians are celebrating having a genius on their team for the reason that this is supposed to be legitimizing, it's actually not a good look. Not that I expect anybody to see it that way. When I'm in love with another person, I don't need an expert opinion to increase my confidence that the other person exists. Part of what it means for them to love me presupposes they solve that problem for me, i.e., because of what their loving me entails, I couldn't be convinced they don't exist.
Now, if he is putting that high-powered brain to work in order to come up with a convincing reason to believe that God exists, that's a different story. I'm all ears. But announcing your belief in Christianity as if your IQ is supposed to independently make that announcement a big deal is astoundingly pompous.
CHIRO 6 points 3 hours ago
Look, I don't want to rain on your parade, but I also kind of do.
There is no connection between high IQ and the skills it takes to determine whether (i) general theism is true and (ii) a particular religion is true. So, there's no connection between the likelihood that God exists (or that a particular religion is true) and the beliefs of an exceptionally high-IQ individual. If he doesn't recognize this, then it is evidence for the claim.
There are plenty of people with very high IQ who believe things without justification. The whole thing about humans being value-sensitive really adds to the confusion. There's no evidence that being able to solve IQ test problems better than other people solves our basic existential problems or makes us less prone to seeing the world in a way that helps us cope.
The value of this for Christians is really just social. "We've got a smarty on our side." It looks good for your team given that the debate over God's existence is so undecided. But if you really think about it, that's more evidence against God's existence. If there is a free, all-powerful, all-loving being in control, we should expect having a high-IQ person on your side to be pretty meaningless, since it wouldn't take a genius to know that God exists -- that is, our knowing about the existence of an all-loving God shouldn't be that kind of problem.
If Christians are celebrating having a genius on their team for the reason that this is supposed to be legitimizing, it's actually not a good look. Not that I expect anybody to see it that way. When I'm in love with another person, I don't need an expert opinion to increase my confidence that the other person exists. Part of what it means for them to love me presupposes they solve that problem for me, i.e., because of what their loving me entails, I couldn't be convinced they don't exist.
Now, if he is putting that high-powered brain to work in order to come up with a convincing reason to believe that God exists, that's a different story. I'm all ears. But announcing your belief in Christianity as if your IQ is supposed to independently make that announcement a big deal is astoundingly pompous.