"If you were really smart…"

Suppose you were given the option to either possess extraordinarily high intelligence or profound faith in God. Which would you choose?

Perhaps you question whether it is appropriate to have an either/or choice of intelligence or faith in God. Set that question aside for a moment and consider which we emphasize more as a society. How much time, expense and energy does a parent spend each year to make certain their child receives a quality education? How much time and energy does the same parent spend in the same period to help the child develop an awareness of the importance of their faith in God?

I was asked recently to review a book manuscript. I found a statistic in the book very interesting. A United Press International poll, written by Gayle Young, reported:

"More than half of the college students in three states-Texas, Connecticut and California-believe God created Adam and Eve. One-third believe in aliens, Bigfoot and the lost continent of Atlantis. Poll results…indicated that students who believe God created the earth are less likely to read books, and have a lower grade-point average than students who don't believe the biblical account. Overall, 37 percent said they believe in ghosts, and 39 percent said it is possible to communicate with the dead. So it should be no surprise that people readily accept biblical accounts of Jonah and the whale and a serpent that talks."

So! You tell me…does our society think there is a relationship between intelligence and faith in God? What was the purpose of these polls? What did UPI hope to accomplish with these statistics? I wrote a note in the margin of the manuscript of my impression of the UPI poll: "(…it appears the poll suggests that) God isn't needed by those whose achieve intellectually…"

Did your son ever come home to you and say, "Dad: I told Brian you are stronger than his dad. You can beat up Brian's dad, can't you?" My first reaction when someone pulls this 'Smarter…and therefore less interested in God…Than Thou' routine is to challenge the father of their IQ to a duel with the Father of my Faith. Then, when I realize God doesn't need me to be a spiritual Don Quixote fighting noisy windmills that have only three sheets in the wind, I resort to a scriptural search for God's perspective.

2750 years ago, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to write:

The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? (Isaiah 29:13,14,16 NIV)

God's perspective? He tells us we have a tendency to turn things upside down when it comes to how smart we think we are. God made us, yet we think we know more than Him! In essence, we say to God "You did not make me! You know nothing!" The apostle Paul explained it to the Greek believers in Corinth, a people 'proud of their learning and philosophy':

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:17-2125-27 NIV)

Jesus made a very succinct statement on the subject:

"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.(Luke 10:21 NIV)

Is intelligence related to faith? God made certain that it wasn't! Einstein had the same shot at faith as the mentally handicapped. How smart are you? How strong is your faith? Which means more to you? Intelligence can take you a long way in this life, but the tracks end just this side of forever. Faith takes you everywhere…in both worlds.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:11-12 NIV)