Geniuses who are..Christian? (salvation, grace, hell, church)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Can someone with such an advanced level of intelligence possibly submit themselves to the God of the bible? The common thread with these individuals is an extreme obsession with their craft. Also they might believe in an “intelligent design”, but not biblical principles. I’m not sure if God would appreciate someone giving most of their lives to their craft, but not to Him. However they have impacted how we see and understand this world. Some of the scientific discoveries on how vast and complex this universe can be has helped strengthened my faith in God’s existence. Then you have people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who have revolutionized our lives through technological innovation. I wonder if a believer who is endowed with a genius mind can make that same impact in the world and still be right with God?
Can someone with such an advanced level of intelligence possibly submit themselves to the God of the bible? The common thread with these individuals is an extreme obsession with their craft. Also they might believe in an “intelligent design”, but not biblical principles. I’m not sure if God would appreciate someone giving most of their lives to their craft, but not to Him. However they have impacted how we see and understand this world. Some of the scientific discoveries on how vast and complex this universe can be has helped strengthened my faith in God’s existence. Then you have people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who have revolutionized our lives through technological innovation. I wonder if a believer who is endowed with a genius mind can make that same impact in the world and still be right with God?
There are certainly many intelligent people who align themselves with some form of Abrahamic religion.
I'm curious about your definition of "submit themselves to the God of the bible."
If you mean they believe in an inerrant, literal bible - I doubt many truly intelligent, educated, rational people would say they do.
I'm curious about your definition of "submit themselves to the God of the bible."If you mean they believe in an inerrant, literal bible - I doubt many truly intelligent, educated, rational people would say they do.
That is exactly what I mean. They have an extreme curiosity about life along with lack of "black-white" thinking. It makes me one wonder why would God give them those gifts just lie to dormant under certain biblical principles.
Can someone with such an advanced level of intelligence possibly submit themselves to the God of the bible?
Yes of course they can. In fact, high intelligence imparts a subtlety and flexibility of mind which is a distinct advantage in finding a perfectly rational expression of Christianity and other religions. But you shouldn't overestimate the significance of high intelligence for it does not correlate with mental stability -- so it proves nothing regardless. I think what you will find among the highly intelligent is a higher number of converts either way for I think high intelligence does increase ones capacity to challenge what one has been told and also to revise and innovate in order to find greater sense in a wider variety of thought systems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recovering_shygirl
The common thread with these individuals is an extreme obsession with their craft. Also they might believe in an “intelligent design”, but not biblical principles. I’m not sure if God would appreciate someone giving most of their lives to their craft, but not to Him.
That does not sound like a very intelligent god, which is not likely to be very believable for someone with high intelligence themselves. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recovering_shygirl
I wonder if a believer who is endowed with a genius mind can make that same impact in the world and still be right with God?
Depends on how intelligent is this god you are talking about. When you imagine that you can speak of and speak for God, is it likely that the result will be something that is any more intelligent than yourself?
Yes of course they can. In fact, high intelligence imparts a subtlety and flexibility of mind which is a distinct advantage in finding a perfectly rational expression of Christianity and other religions. But you shouldn't overestimate the significance of high intelligence for it does not correlate with mental stability -- so it proves nothing regardless. I think what you will find among the highly intelligent is a higher number of converts either way for I think high intelligence does increase ones capacity to challenge what one has been told and also to revise and innovate in order to find greater sense in a wider variety of thought systems.
That does not sound like a very intelligent god, which is not likely to be very believable for someone with high intelligence themselves. LOL
Depends on how intelligent is this god you are talking about. When you imagine that you can speak of and speak for God, is it likely that the result will be something that is any more intelligent than yourself?
To clarify -There are plethora of scriptures about submission to Christ, authority figures,loved ones, and other Christians. I would think that can be difficult for geniuses as they will most like to spend their time with exploration and innovation. At least the ones who are mentally stable. I'm rhetorically asking can such individual still obtain eternal life in the sight of God. Jesus poses the question "what would it profit a man if he should gain the who world and loose his soul".
To clarify -There are plethora of scriptures about submission to Christ, authority figures,loved ones, and other Christians. I would think that can be difficult for geniuses as they will most like to spend their time with exploration and innovation. At least the ones who are mentally stable. I'm rhetorically asking can such individual still obtain eternal life in the sight of God. Jesus poses the question "what would it profit a man if he should gain the who world and loose his soul".
Sure if you take these passages as a demand that they surrender their intelligence and/or their sense of what is right then it is unlikely that intelligent people would fall for it, but then I hope you are intelligent enough not to fall for that either. That comes from twisting the Bible into a tool of power and manipulation and is certainly not what those passages mean. In fact, that would be strong evidence this is part an parcel of a legalization of Christianity turning the gospel of salvation by grace through faith right on its head to make it into a gospel of salvation by works. There is a very strong tendency to do this in religion because it is the only way to make it work as a tool of power -- have to have a way of making people do something.
But lets take a look at these passages.
There are many passages on the submission to Christ and God's will but these are no use whatsoever for the distortion of religion into a tool of power because this is logically never equal to a submission to other human beings.
submission to authority: Romans 13 -- this is talking about the secular authority which keeps the peace of the land and the Bible is certainly right to expect us to bend very far in order to do so and seek a solution to problems within such boundaries. But there are also passages which do not allow this to go so far as requiring us to go against the laws of God.
By a submission to loved ones I assume you refer to Ephesians 5:22. Using your terminology this would logically have to be voluntary and out of love for otherwise these are not loved ones and relationship has become a bit of a lie. In the actual terms of Ephesians this brings us back to the social order of a particular culture and there is little reason among Christians to think this means we must remodel our culture after an image of first century Judaism.
As for submitting yourself to other Christians according to Ephesians 5:22 there is an implicit recognition of these other as your bretheren in Christ and thus this partakes of both of the previous two. For this is both a relationship of agape/fillial love and a social contract.
Abiding by all of these are actually made easier by high intelligence rather than harder for the same reasons of subtlety and flexibility of thought. Otherwise I think you can make a strong case for this being a one-sided or even savant handicapped sort of intelligence. Then there are those with something which amounts to little more than a pretense and delusion of superiority and intelligence, which is founded more on a psychological need to dominate others. That is something which tend to be downright toxic for the whole community.
In the church were I go there are about twenty physically and mental handicap people who go every Sunday and are welcome by the church , as God will accept people who make a peace with Him and God can save the highly educated and the poorly educated one to all .....Still Jesus has gifts of Holy spirit on people who are motivated to use the gifts so some intellect will be required .... Then Genius of the arts of the world may be difficult believing in a God which physically cannot see , which could be their posture in the world
Not to worry, your over 8,000 posts provide ample evidence of your intellect, nate.
riiiiight!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
