Christian Intelligence
- Thread starter Motar
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The bible set the tone for much of pop culture "literature" - sex, blood, incest, war, genocide, slavery, psychopaths running amok etc. It ain't a good read without all the main elements specified in the bible.
Several years ago while sitting in a hospital waiting room I happened across a copy of Time Magazine if I remember correctly. One of the articles in that issue was an interview with Mr. Lewis in his final years. I found it to be very interesting how he felt about his reclusive life and his involvement in theology and apologetics.
A selection of witnesses to Jesus' incarnate authority and power:
"When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." (Matthew 7:28-29 NIV)
"The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, 'What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him." (Mark 1:27 NIV)
"One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 'Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,' they said. 'Who gave you this authority?' He replied, 'I will also ask you a question. Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?' They discussed it among themselves and said, 'If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, 'Of human origin,' all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.' So they answered, 'We don’t know where it was from.' Jesus said, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." (Luke 20:1-8 NIV)
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him." (John 3:2 NIV)
"Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know." (Acts 2:22 NIV)
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Welcome back, Dex. You were missed.
Dr. Karl Albrecht's six primary dimensions of intelligence:
Abstract = Conceptual reasoning, manipulating verbal, mathematical & symbolic information
Social = Interacting successfully with others in various contexts
Practical = "Common sense" capabilities; the ability to solve problems & get things done
Emotional = Self-insight & the ability to regulate or manage one's reactions to experience
Aesthetic = Appreciation of form, design and relationships
Kinesthetic = Whole-body competence, e.g. singing, dancing, flying an airplane
Theory of Social Intelligence
Did you ever give Albrecht's social intelligence theory a look? What did you think?
I never left, I just haven't been bothering to engage you in argument, as I said I wouldn't. Yes I've looked carefully at Albrecht's theory. I think he has useful insights, I've never thought that IQ tests measured anything except how well you can do on IQ tests. Trying to reduce the measure of human intelligence to a single number seems fundamentally flawed to me, and I've seen enough IQ tests in my time to know that they focus almost entirely on only one of the dimensions Albrecht identifies, the Abstract, with a wee bit of the Practical when it comes to problem solving. I also know I'm very good at three of his categories, and my wife beats me all to pieces, no contest, on the other three.
And no I won't tell you which are which. Gotta keep SOME secrets...
And no I won't tell you which are which. Gotta keep SOME secrets...
I also know I'm very good at three of his categories, and my wife beats me all to pieces, no contest, on the other three. And no I won't tell you which are which. Gotta keep SOME secrets...
Some believe that one hemisphere of their brain dominates:
"In general, the left hemisphere is dominant in language: processing what you hear and handling most of the duties of speaking. It's also in charge of carrying out logic and exact mathematical computations. When you need to retrieve a fact, your left brain pulls it from your memory.
The right hemisphere is mainly in charge of spatial abilities, face recognition and processing music. It performs some math, but only rough estimations and comparisons. The brain's right side also helps us to comprehend visual imagery and make sense of what we see. It plays a role in language, particularly in interpreting context and a person's tone."
What's the Difference Between the Right Brain and Left Brain?
In my experience, the brain is designed to call up different intellectual faculties as needed without regard for a dominant cerebral hemisphere. Granted, some intellectual facets described by Albrecht can become dull with disuse. But in an uncompromised brain, the intellectual capabilities are always present and available for use.
I think you'd find Jill Bolte Taylor's book "My Stroke of Insight" very interesting. She's a neuroscientist who suffered a major left hemisphere stroke in her mid 30s and recovered to tell us about it. Her description of what it feels like when your left hemisphere shuts down is most enlightening. It sounds, in fact, very like descriptions of the ecstatic religious experience.
Sounds like an interesting book, Dex. What is "the ecstatic religious experience"?
Hey, DB. Having never experienced/witnessed an "ecstatic religious experience", I researched it a bit and was leaning more towards a psychotropic source rather than a religious root.
Well go for it. Or you could spend years on the slow plodding approach. Some say it's cheating and others say it's valid. The teaching that I follow loosely only because it's a sure fire way to suspend the infernal babbling to oneself. I like them cuz I'm lazy and I like the purged feelings afterward. It's hard to explain with words.
Sometimes you have to break down your social conditioning to be able to see clearly. If done with intent and integrity, the use of psychotropics can be of great benefit (recreational use, not so much). You need to lose your (socially conditioned) mind in order to come to your senses.
yub senses, the heal to the head, up touches down,
THE TOMB OF THE BODY.
At about the same time there came one of the numberless correlations of meaning that continued to be revealed through the study of comparative philology, one indeed that supplied overwhelming corroboration to the discernment made through the reading of Massey's exegetics. Two English words of four letters each and differing in only one of them were seen to be alike because they esoterically connote the same thing. These two revealing words were "tomb" and "womb." If soul went to its "death" when it entered the body of a child, then that body must be actually its tomb, grave, sarcophagus, sepulcher and mummy case. But since also in that very tomb of "death" it was destined in the course of its cycle to have its rebirth or resurrection from "death," then also this body became in time its "womb" of new life. That vehicle which became its tomb of death, was also the conceiving mother-womb of its new birth!
And this startling correlation from two English
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words was more than corroborated by a similar, but even stronger kinship of structure that united two Greek words, namely soma, body, and sema, tomb. There is no escaping the deduction that the Greek Sages saw the body as the tomb, as well as the womb of the soul.
THE TOMB OF THE BODY.
At about the same time there came one of the numberless correlations of meaning that continued to be revealed through the study of comparative philology, one indeed that supplied overwhelming corroboration to the discernment made through the reading of Massey's exegetics. Two English words of four letters each and differing in only one of them were seen to be alike because they esoterically connote the same thing. These two revealing words were "tomb" and "womb." If soul went to its "death" when it entered the body of a child, then that body must be actually its tomb, grave, sarcophagus, sepulcher and mummy case. But since also in that very tomb of "death" it was destined in the course of its cycle to have its rebirth or resurrection from "death," then also this body became in time its "womb" of new life. That vehicle which became its tomb of death, was also the conceiving mother-womb of its new birth!
And this startling correlation from two English
42
words was more than corroborated by a similar, but even stronger kinship of structure that united two Greek words, namely soma, body, and sema, tomb. There is no escaping the deduction that the Greek Sages saw the body as the tomb, as well as the womb of the soul.
Ha ha. Not really looking for a chemical high, DB. The spiritual elation that I have in Christ cannot be matched. I'm just questioning whether or not an "ecstatic religious experience" has anything to do with religion as it seems to be most commonly associated which psychotropic drugs.
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