RE: Atheists, smarter than theists?
December 17, 2013 at 12:37 am
(This post was last modified: December 17, 2013 at 12:38 am by Whateverist.)
(December 16, 2013 at 10:13 pm)Polaris Wrote:(December 16, 2013 at 9:55 pm)whateverist Wrote: I'm always suspicious of people who think intelligence is a thing to have. Anyone who treats it as a settled matter doesn't have the patience for wisdom.
Do you mean knowledge? You can be intelligent, but not knowledgeable. A fraud once stated that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
No, definitely not knowledgeable. But I think "intelligence" is a very poorly understood concept. It seems to refer to something more general than expertise within any one field and yet can't be measured except in one context or another.
Whether someone may be smarter than we are is irrelevant. If we aren't smart enough to appreciate what makes them smarter then we're in no position to take their advice. In the end, we can only choose the expert that we're smart enough to recognize. It's like buying stereo speakers: if you can't hear a difference, it doesn't make a difference. Better to just suck it up and do the best you can.
