Why is it that many non-believers find it difficult to understand how highly intelligent people can believe in the supernatural (external to the natural world), whether it is religion, astrology or other similar phenomena, when there is no empirical evidence for it. I ask you to not comment unless you are willing to read the entire post.
Let’s start with the well known IQ (Intelligence Quotient) bell curve which shows the distribution of IQ in the population using a two-dimensional comparison. The horizontal x-axis shows the IQ level from left to right with 100 representing the mean (not the average) and the y-axis showing the frequency (the number of people at that IQ level).
The Stanford-Binet 5th edition IQ test describes IQ scores below 70 as representative of individuals who are impaired or intellectually disabled while 133+ is regarded as superior IQ.
Binet indicates that about 2% of the population scores below 70 while Levine & Marks classifies those with IQ ratings from 50 to74 as “morons” and those with scores between 25 and 49 are “imbeciles” and those with scores from 0-24 are described as “idiots.”
Why the above explanation? Well, if we assume that IQ is inherited, I propose that other personal characteristics, such as empathy, love, belief (of various sorts), delusions (of various sorts) and skepticism, are similarly inherited. However, such proclivities differ from person to person.
Let’s look at the distribution of delusion. The tendency for delusions is wide spread through the population. Many people believe in the supernatural, astrology and occult phenomena and millions believe that Trump won the 2020 election. Since we are all delusional to some degree, we’ll look where we fit on the IQ curve presented earlier. We might find skeptics on the one end and highly deluded individuals on the opposite end of the x-axis. We assume that there is a point where the degree of distance from the norm (the mid-point of the x-axis) becomes a clinical delusion.
Since there is no correlation of the bell curves for IQ and for the degree of delusion, it is possible that one can be highly intelligent on the IQ curve and also strongly delusional on the delusion curve. This seems to answer the question posed in the first paragraph.
I scored 128 on one test and 141 on another, suggesting that IQ tests are not accurate but are little more than approximations. I would probably score close to the skeptical side of the proposed delusional scale.
I hope to get a great response and if you like this post, please SHARE.
Let’s start with the well known IQ (Intelligence Quotient) bell curve which shows the distribution of IQ in the population using a two-dimensional comparison. The horizontal x-axis shows the IQ level from left to right with 100 representing the mean (not the average) and the y-axis showing the frequency (the number of people at that IQ level).
The Stanford-Binet 5th edition IQ test describes IQ scores below 70 as representative of individuals who are impaired or intellectually disabled while 133+ is regarded as superior IQ.
Binet indicates that about 2% of the population scores below 70 while Levine & Marks classifies those with IQ ratings from 50 to74 as “morons” and those with scores between 25 and 49 are “imbeciles” and those with scores from 0-24 are described as “idiots.”
Why the above explanation? Well, if we assume that IQ is inherited, I propose that other personal characteristics, such as empathy, love, belief (of various sorts), delusions (of various sorts) and skepticism, are similarly inherited. However, such proclivities differ from person to person.
Let’s look at the distribution of delusion. The tendency for delusions is wide spread through the population. Many people believe in the supernatural, astrology and occult phenomena and millions believe that Trump won the 2020 election. Since we are all delusional to some degree, we’ll look where we fit on the IQ curve presented earlier. We might find skeptics on the one end and highly deluded individuals on the opposite end of the x-axis. We assume that there is a point where the degree of distance from the norm (the mid-point of the x-axis) becomes a clinical delusion.
Since there is no correlation of the bell curves for IQ and for the degree of delusion, it is possible that one can be highly intelligent on the IQ curve and also strongly delusional on the delusion curve. This seems to answer the question posed in the first paragraph.
I scored 128 on one test and 141 on another, suggesting that IQ tests are not accurate but are little more than approximations. I would probably score close to the skeptical side of the proposed delusional scale.
I hope to get a great response and if you like this post, please SHARE.
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