By Akhmad Zamroni
One of the greatest aspirations of parents is to have intelligent and gifted children. Parents generally aspire to have children who are intelligent and, if possible, exceptionally intelligent—or even geniuses—because such children are seen as a source of pride and will bring honor to the family and their parents.
The desire to have an intellectually gifted child is actually a natural and human desire. However, high intellectual intelligence (IQ) or genius without being accompanied by proper religious guidance and direction (to cultivate spiritual intelligence, or SQ) tends to lead people into terrible error; namely, it can cause the individual to drift toward agnosticism (doubting the existence of God) or even atheism (completely disbelieving in the existence of God).
People with High IQs Tend Not to Believe in God
The results of a study conducted by Professor Richard Lynn, a professor of psychology at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom, show that many people with higher IQs (intelligence quotient—intellectual intelligence) do not believe in God. According to Richard Lynn, religious belief has declined in the 20th century. This has occurred in at least 137 countries around the world.
This decline in religious belief is directly linked to an increase in average intelligence. According to Lynn, most elementary school children believe in God. However, as they reach adulthood and their intelligence increases, many begin to doubt God’s existence.
To support his research findings, Lynn cited the results of a survey conducted among organizations whose members are people with high IQs, such as the Royal Society (in the United Kingdom) and the National Academy of Sciences (in the United States). A survey of Royal Society members showed that only 3.3 percent of them believe in God (the remaining 96.7 percent doubt or do not believe in God). Meanwhile, a survey of members of the American National Academy of Sciences revealed that only 7 percent of the organization’s members believe in God.
Other research by Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman (University of Rochester, New York) and Judith Hall (Northeastern University, Boston) also showed that the smarter a person is, the less they believe in God. “They found that atheism is widespread among intelligent people,” wrote the Daily Mail.
These findings were corroborated by a study by Lewis Terman (Stanford University) of 1,500 10-year-old children with IQs over 135 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. According to this study—whose results were reviewed by Robin Sears (Columbia University) and Michael McCullough (University of Miami)—highly intelligent children turned out to be less religious than children with lower IQs.
Many Highly Intelligent and Genius Individuals Are Agnostics and Atheists
The findings of this research are likely not mere speculation. The fact that many highly intelligent and super-intelligent figures do not believe in God supports the results of the study and research mentioned above. Several legendary figures in science and technology are known to have doubted the existence of God, and some even completely reject the idea of God’s existence.
Albert Einstein, for example, the genius physicist who discovered the theory of relativity, is known as a figure who doubted the existence of God (an agnostic). Einstein never explicitly stated that he was an atheist, though his statements clearly indicate that he had little faith in and was not convinced of God’s existence. When asked if he believed in life after death, Einstein replied, “No. And one life is enough for me.”
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| Albert Einstein (Photo: Oren Jack Turner) |
Carl Sagan, an American physicist and astronomer known for his exceptional intelligence, held views on God and the afterlife that were more or less similar to Einstein’s. Sagan was also famous as an agnostic scientist—that is, he considered the existence of God to be difficult to prove.
The most recent and well-known example is Stephen Hawking. This brilliant British physicist, who passed away on March 14, 2018, openly stated that he was an atheist. He did not believe in the existence of God and considered heaven and hell to be nothing more than fairy tales invented by people who feared death.
There are still a number of other high-IQ figures in science, philosophy, and the intellectual world who doubt God’s existence (agnostics) or do not believe in God (atheists). Charles Darwin (the originator of the theory of evolution), Bertrand Russell (British mathematician and philosopher), Rosalind Franklin (pioneer of X-ray photography), Émile Durkheim (French sociologist), and Milton Friedman (economist and Nobel Prize in Economics laureate) are known as prominent agnostic intellectuals. Meanwhile, Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist), James Watson (discoverer of the structure of DNA), Daniel Dennett (American philosopher), Samuel Harris (American philosopher and neuroscientist), and Jean-Paul Sartre (French writer and philosopher) are prominent intellectuals who are atheists.
Beyond this list, there are other famous figures who are also agnostics and atheists, such as Karl Marx (philosopher), Friedrich Nietzsche (philosopher), Ludwig Feuerbach (philosopher), Friedrich Engels (philosopher), Marie Curie (chemist), Sigmund Freud (founder of psychoanalysis), Mark Twain (writer), Warren Buffett (businessman), Larry King (celebrity), Sean Penn (actor), Brad Pitt (actor), Sting (musician), Karl R. Popper (philosopher), Jawaharlal Nehru (politician), Bob Hawke (politician), Helen Clark (politician), Thomas Henry Huxley (biologist), and Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computer).
Imbalanced Intelligence
The doubts and skepticism that highly intelligent and genius individuals have regarding God’s existence almost always stem from their excessive focus on just one type of brain intelligence: intellectual intelligence (IQ = intelligence quotient). The extraordinary intellectual intelligence they possess, whether consciously or unconsciously, leads them to become scientist-centric—that is, they overly idolize and glorify science and knowledge.
The logical, empirical nature of science—which demands testing and proof through observable, tangible means—leads them and scientists in general to insist that everything must be treated the same way: it must be testable and provable through concrete, physical cause-and-effect relationships. This also applies when they view and assess the existence of God.
Since God’s existence cannot be physically tested or proven with the naked eye (because, no matter the method or effort, God cannot be seen by human eyes), they fall into the (erroneous and misguided) conclusion that God’s existence is highly improbable or unbelievable, as His existence cannot be physically and tangibly proven. They also defend and justify their conclusion (that God does not exist) solely through logic, scientific methods, and arguments—which are, in reality, severely limited in their ability to comprehend and recognize God’s existence.
Testing and proving the supernatural or the unseen (invisible to the eye) through science, therefore, can be described as a “misplaced” endeavor and, as such, is futile and nothing but nihilism. No matter how brilliant the human mind may be, and no matter how sophisticated scientific methodologies and arguments may be, they will never be able to grasp or prove the ultimate truth of the supernatural or the unseen. When science is unable to prove it, a forced and contrived conclusion is drawn that this ultimate truth (the existence of God) does not exist or has not been proven.
The situation would be different if they (scientists and researchers) were willing and able to use their spiritual intelligence (SQ = spiritual quotient). With spiritual intelligence, people will strive to know and understand things invisible to the eye (metaphysical/supernatural/mystical), including the existence of God—not through logic and reason, because no matter how powerful human logic and reason may be, they will still be unable to accurately grasp and understand things of a supernatural or mystical nature.
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| Diagram of Types of Intelligence (rumahinspirasi.com) |
With spiritual intelligence, people will be moved to perceive supernatural or unseen phenomena through their intuition, conscience, and a spirit of humbly seeking the truth, as well as an awareness of the existence of a supreme power that transcends human life, living beings, and the universe. Through spiritual intelligence, humans will be able to sense, understand, realize, and ultimately believe in the existence of God and other unseen things still connected to Him (such as life after death, the afterlife, heaven, and hell).
Is spiritual intelligence solely related to the ability to understand supernatural or mystical phenomena?
Of course not. Concrete, visible things—such as living beings, the universe, and humanity itself—actually serve as the means through which humans become aware of the existence of a supreme power and authority. The orderly, systematic, and perfect nature of human life, living beings, and the universe—for those who are willing and able to use their spiritual intelligence—is not a matter of chance, but rather the result of the creation of the Almighty Creator. The orderliness of life in the universe and all it contains is not solely due to the operation of the laws of nature; rather, the laws of nature themselves can function in an orderly manner because they are created and controlled by the Supreme, Almighty, and Perfect Being—namely, God (Allah swt.).
Those capable of utilizing their spiritual intelligence will also find it relatively easy to comprehend God’s existence through the history of religion and the lives of the prophets. Through spiritual intelligence, God’s existence becomes easy to grasp and believe, for the presence of religion, along with the testimonies and declarations of the prophets, clearly demonstrate God’s existence and power. With their undeniable intelligence, honesty, and noble character and conduct, the prophets—such as Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Solomon, Aaron, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and others—very clearly affirm that God’s existence is true, certain, and absolute. As recorded in the history and sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions, the primary purpose of the prophets’ (messengers’) presence on earth is none other than to carry out God’s mission to invite humanity to believe in and worship the One and Only God (in addition, of course, to doing good toward fellow human beings and the environment).
Harnessing Spiritual Intelligence
One of the strange and amusing things found in the thinking of geniuses is that they sometimes hold ambiguous double standards. They do not believe in an invisible God, but instead believe in other invisible figures that are far more implausible. Take physicist Stephen Hawking, for example. He did not believe in the existence of God at all, yet he did believe in the existence of aliens—creatures (believed to originate) from outer space or beyond Earth—even though Hawking had never seen an alien with his own eyes and, throughout his life, was never able to prove their existence using the very science he so highly praised.
There are also quite a few other scientists who share Stephen Hawking’s views regarding the phenomenon of aliens, even though scientific evidence has never shown that aliens actually exist—in fact, as recently as 2018, scientists from the University of Oxford went so far as to state that “aliens do not exist.” For most ordinary people, the existence of God is clearly far more plausible than that of aliens. Aliens are more like fictional characters born of the imagination of science fiction authors or the speculations of scientists.
Not believing in the existence of God on the one hand and believing in the existence of aliens on the other reveals the subjectivity and confusion in the thinking of many scientists and science enthusiasts, stemming from their overreliance on intellectual intelligence (IQ) and neglect of spiritual intelligence (SQ). This also demonstrates that their opinions and statements (regarding the controversy over God and aliens) are flawed and untenable, and therefore cannot serve as a scientific foundation or guide.
This contradiction highlights the inadequacy and invalidity of intellectual intelligence (IQ) when it comes to analyzing and evaluating the existence of metaphysical, supernatural, or occult phenomena. Spiritual intelligence (SQ) serves as a more credible alternative for this purpose. The combination of spiritual intelligence (SQ) and intellectual intelligence (IQ) will provide a more precise and effective solution for assessing and drawing conclusions about the existence of supernatural or mystical phenomena (especially God).
Einstein, Sagan, Hawking, and other geniuses who doubted and did not believe in God have passed away. After “living” in the afterlife or the grave (barzakh), they now surely know exactly the true facts about God, life after death, as well as heaven and hell, because they have been introduced to the true (hakiki) reality. Despite their great contributions to science and human life, they also ultimately realized that their extraordinary intelligence and genius became less meaningful—and even turned into an unspeakable catastrophe for themselves—because that very genius led them to disbelieve in the Great and Almighty Being who created them.
References
- https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
- https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_Atheists
- https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking
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- https://tekno.tempo.co/read/504083/orang-cerdas-cenderung-jadi-ateis/full&view=ok
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- https://www.suara.com/news/2019/07/10/080500/mereka-hidup-tanpa-tuhan-pengakuan-orang-orang-ateis-di-indonesia
