How Important is IQ?

I have been seeing this and similar memes making the rounds on apologetics pages recently. I am certainly happy Dr. YoungHoo Kim has found a relationship with Jesus. I think he, like any person who enters our family should be celebrated. And I pray he continues in his faith and grows into maturity with God. This post is not directed at him in any way, rather it is directed at the individuals trying to profit off Dr. Kim’s faith in a manner unbecoming of Christians. Each time I see a story about Dr. Kim’s faith it is connected to the fact that he has the record for highest IQ. The obvious implication is that “smart people follow Christ, dumb people don’t”. In fact, I have seen that explicitly expressed by would be apologists. The greatest irony in this is these same apologists will often quote 1 Corinthians 1:27a as a way of downplaying the arguments of other very intelligent people. [But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;}. Essentially these apologists like to downplay the need for intelligence until they have someone smarter to point to. This is both disingenuous and worse it cuts across the very nature of Christianity.

First this is a disingenuous argument for the very obvious reason that we cannot say intelligence does not matter in one breath and then flout this man’s intelligence in the next. If intelligence does not matter to Christianity then it does not matter, no matter how bright our best and brightest are. To me this kind of behavior shows how far apologetics has fallen. Early apologists were not out to win an argument, they were about providing a logical defense of Christianity and correcting erroneous beliefs about the faith. Apologetics is–as the name implies– a defense of the faith, not an attack on others or trying to win a debate. But because modern apologists see their goal as defeating other worldviews and not defending the faith, they will aggressively promote individuals like Dr. Kim for their ends.

Second, this tactic intellectualizes the faith too much. I tend to be very intellectual as most who know me lament. I have come to realize over the years that while I connect to God through intellectual means, this is not the whole of the faith or even the best avenue. Christianity is about relating to God and through God the world. When we idealize Dr. Kim’s IQ we are are downplaying the true relational nature of Christianity and idolizing a false picture. hen we play up IQ we are implicitly saying that knowledge about God is more important than knowing God.

Lastly, when we people make a big deal of Dr. Kim’s IQ they are overlooking not simply 1 Corinthians 1:27 but the tenor of Scripture itself. Scripture teaches that it is not the strength of our minds that leads us to Jesus, it is the humility of our hearts. Depth of faith cannot come through reading more or learning better arguments. Depth of faith comes from sitting with Jesus’ words and letting them mold our hearts, minds, and character. Depth of faith does not come from intellectual pursuits but from learning persons (especially God). IQ is not an indicator of how one will learn another person, in fact it can be a hindrance.

So, while I rejoice with Dr. Kim in his faith and hope he is a genuine witness for Jesus throughout his life, let us lay aside this hindrance. May we grow in the ways that matter to God and not look to the types of prestige that so enamor those outside the Church.