The Arrogance of Intelligence

or How The Unready Abuse Their Gifts.

Those of us with extraordinary gifts can get caught up in ourselves, and our pride (although we may insist we are not overly proud) gets in the way of our vision. We can't see the forest for the trees, even though we may be able to tell someone the scientific name for each of the trees in that forest.

It is easy to fall into the trap of pride. Our ego is powerful, our inner talk to ourselves is always "on", and we can rationalize our behaviour many, many times a day to convince ourselves of our opinions or judgments. If we are honest with ourselves, we can see that we hate to be wrong, either factually or morally, so we sometimes mask the truth to be able to live with ourselves, guilt-free.

I remember many times when I looked down on someone because they were not as intelligent as I was. I also remember how I hurt people's feelings because of my arrogance and changed relationships with those I hurt. So when I say these things in this post, please realize that I have come to these conclusions through self-analysis. I have done all of these things and have held these views myself. I sometimes like to think of myself as a recovering "intellectual".

Why do some intelligent people insist that everything that may be true or real must be understandable? Is it because they understand more than most people and this has worked out well for them in many instances in their life? This is a logical fallacy since why does someone have to understand something for it to be true? Personal incredulity or "since I don't believe it, it can't be true" is not a valid basis for an argument, just as ignorance of the truth does not mean it is not true. If that were the case, most things would not be "true" since many people don't understand a lot of things, including most scientific concepts as well as philosophy, yet they are believed by intelligent people more than those who do not understand these things, e.g. people denouncing evolution because they cannot reconcile the facts with their beliefs that everything was created at once and nothing has changed because it was perfectly made; conversely people denouncing a Creator because they do not have scientific evidence that was proven by humans, therefore they cannot reconcile this fact with their beliefs that everything must be proved to be believed.

As humans, there is so much that we do not understand. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, there are things that we know we know, things that we know we don't know, and there are things that we don't know we don't know. It is this third category that some intelligent people ignore when they make judgments about things they either don't agree with, or believe in. Simply because it is not yet proven does not mean it does not exist or is not true. To quote Carl Sagan, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. There is so much of the universe and of our world that we don't enough know about yet that to dismiss an idea out of hand because it doesn't fit into our particular way of thinking is wrong.

Think of how much we humans did not know, even 100 years ago? 500 years ago? 1000 or 2000 years ago? And yet these time periods are a blink of an eye, compared to the age of the universe, our planet and even our species. Imagine how much more we will know in another 100, 500, 1000 or 2000 years from now. I am sure people of the future will view us much the same way as we picture people from the past: on the whole, quite ignorant.

The subtitle of this post refers to the phenomenon of people who are blessed with gifts that they are not prepared to correctly use. Not just the gift of intelligence, but other blessings such as family members and friends who love us and whom we love.

Take the story of the Prodigal Son in the gospel of Luke. He asked for his inheritance from his father and then squandered it on a lifestyle that is so common, then as now, all about having a good time all the time and not being mindful of the consequences, both short-term and long-term. The son was not prepared for the gift and it was wasted.

The story is a parable about humans and God. Those of us without a right relationship with God can squander the gifts that He has given us: life itself, our senses, our blessings of health, family, friends, appreciation for beauty and joy, to name but a few. If and when we realize how low we have made ourselves (the Jewish prodigal son resorted to feeding pigs to get by, pigs are considered unclean in the Jewish tradition), then we return to our Father in repentance. I came to this realization 4 years ago when I accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour. This realization usually comes to us when we are feeling like there is no lower we can go, that we have failed at being the captain of our ship on the journey that is our life, and often we have been dashed against the rocks of despair before we finally give God the helm and admit that we can't do it all alone.

Of course, as in the story our Father in heaven forgives us and celebrates our returning home to Him. Why does He do this? Because He loves us, as fathers love their children and as the father in the story loves his prodigal son, even though he wasted his inheritance and rebuked his father in leaving home to do so.

The story is also effective because it relates the humanity in the elder son, who stayed on the farm and worked there all his life. The elder son questioned the father as to why he made such a big deal about the return of the younger son, and the father answered that all that he had was the elder son's and don't worry about that anyway, just be happy for his brother's return home. This can happen so easily to those of us who are in the church and yet can feel envy or bitterness to others for their happiness or gifts. The father in the story reminds us all that we should be happy for our brother's successes and not jealous. We all have what is the Father's: His love and grace that saves us, if only we accept it. We should revel in His gifts to us and be glad for them, not criticize or be jealous of others who also receive them.

The prodigal son and other allegories in the Bible are still alive today because they speak the truth about human nature. We can all learn lessons from the Bible when we read it as something more than just a great piece of literature. If we open the Bible expecting nothing, we may get nothing more than a bunch of historical facts and stories. If we open our minds to the possibility that the Bible is more than merely a collection of documents written by men hundreds and thousands of years ago, that it is the word of God, written by men who were inspired by God, then all of a sudden it can be so much more and can add so much more meaning and understanding to our lives.

Jesus said that He spoke in allegories so that those who were open to hearing the message would hear it. Everyone takes in information slightly differently, so allegories can have certain aspects that resonate with some people, while others take another part of the lesson that the story teaches the listener/reader.

Faith, Hope and Love. If we don't have these three things, then what happiness can we have? If we don't have happiness, then why are we here? I will explore this in another post.