Rising IQs and the Decline of Faith

Crisis Magazine ^ | February 4, 2015 | JOE BISSONNETTE

[Secret Agent Man]

Of course “high” is a relative term, though.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Thoughts on faith. Historically the Decline in faith seems more associated with a particular historical phase, Spengler comes to mind. No one believed the dominant religion in the late Roman Republic and Early Imperial times. Indeed as early as the 600 BC people were questioning the pagan Gods. In short, the old faiths die, at least historically.

[ravenwolf]

Does any one actually know what intelligence quotient really means? does it mean what some one is capable of learning or what they already know.

Some one who have done math before would naturally get a better score than those who had not which holds true to any thing else.

But in any case the U.S is in the worst shape its been in since the civil war, don`t say much for higher education.

[USMCPOP]

“My grandfather was not an engineer, steeped in the pure abstraction of mathematics, but he invented and patented the dipstick.”

My Dad had a couple of dipsticks. We are both fine and doing well.

[daniel1212]

And look at what they elect, and watch, read and support,

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:22)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Not true, they move the line to support their agenda.

We are expected to cast off "old school" wisdom and adopt new age crap.

[Tijeras_Slim]

There’s a lot of folks today that may be smart, but they’re not smart enough to know how little they know.

[grumpygresh]

An association does not prove causation.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Yes, Ravi is a high IQ Believer. So was Isaac Newton....maybe the highest IQ believer of all time, who actually wrote more words on Bible prophecy than he did on science (wrote a lot on that too). And Einstein too.

Maybe it’s the low information folks getting slightly higher IQs that deceive them.....many very high IQ folks are devout believers.

[SpaceBar]

The economy is rebounding.

Unemployment is hovering around 5%.

People are getting smarter.

[Honorary Serb]

What about me—high IQ, advanced science degree, Orthodox Christian, former Lutheran!!!!

If people REALLY were getting more intelligent, they would NEVER be taken in by the clintons or obama! We’d have a new generation of Thomas Jeffersons, John Adamses, James Madisons, and George Washingtons as our leaders.

Instead, our public life looks like the dumb leading the dumb. The same goes for much of our spiritual life

[E. Pluribus Unum]

For a little more than 100 years we’ve had standardized IQ tests, and over those 100 years there has been a consistent, linear increase in IQ scores, on the order of 3 points per decade.

I reject the premise.

IQ has been verboten as a selection criteria ever since it was determined that the IQ of the average black person is 85.

The APA used to define an IQ of 85 as borderline retarded, but they also recanted for the same reason.

Bottom line, we can't acknowledge IQ anymore because the average black person has a low IQ.

[driftless2]

If IQs are rising (people are getting smarter), where are all the new greats works of art, literature, music, etc. In my view those areas are a lot worse than they used to be. Is anybody trying to say modern classical composers are as good or better than Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and a bunch of others from those eras? To be terse, they’re not nearly as good.

[vpintheak]

I know so many intelligent believers. The proof of God is irrefutable. The problem is really not preaching the entire Bible and needing to engage people’s lives.

[Roger Kaputnik]

In other words, or to rephrase your post: This what happens when liberal idiots / fools are the ones who determine the criteria that constitute / define intelligence. Correct?

I am in complete agreement with you.

[piytar]

You have one here. No, I won’t toss out a number, but it qualifies as “high.” I’ve studied and have degrees in many disciplines and have run several businesses.

And Christ is my Lord and Savior.

Incidentally, I know many fairly bright people who aren’t quite as bright as they think. They mock faith. But the truly bright people I know are all Christian or Jewish (one is both - called Mesianic Jew).

[Cicero]

For example, IQ tests have been “adjusted” within a world that has changed education itself to normalize grades upwards

Precisely. There's no such thing as rising IQs, I'm virtually certain. They're just dumbing down the tests.

[American Constitutionalist]

Rising IQs or rather people with advanced collage degrees does not equate wisdom or common sense.

[Fred Hayek]

I think that intelligence has been going down in the past three decades.
Three decades ago I noticed the “dumb is kewl” culture.
Funny thing, three decades ago was the launch of MTV.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Agreed......and I would add this....I think there’s a small sliver of Christians who kind of relish an ignorance of the massive body of work of science and history that tend to confirm God and The Bible - because there’s a sort of perverse pride in having faith that decries logic.

God invented logic. Believing in God does not include ignoring logic.