How Intelligent Are You?

Intelligence is an extremely complex subject. 

 

There are IQ tests that measure intelligence, but debates are raging over their flaws.

In fact, Guinness retired the "Highest IQ" category in 1990 after concluding IQ tests are too unreliable to designate a single record holder.

But I am writing about two of those found with the highest IQs because I find them fascinating:  

One is a Korean named Kim Ung-yong, born in 1963, with an IQ of 210.

He started speaking at the age of six months and was able to read Japanese, Korean, German, English and many other languages by his third birthday.

At age four, he had memorized about 2000 words in both English and German. At age eight, he was invited by America’s NASA and conducted research work for 10 years. He also received a Ph.D in Physics at Colorado State University a few years later.

But at age 13, Kim was burnt out and returned to his homeland. He shocked everyone by choosing an ordinary office work. Apparently, people expected him to reach the moon. But he says, “I have found my bliss.”  

The other genius, James William Sidis, an American (1898-1944), was credited to have an IQ of 250-300. At age two, he could read English; at age four, he was typing original work in French. A year later, he had devised a formula to accurately name the day of the week for any given date. At eight, he projected a new logarithms table based on the number twelve.

James entered Harvard at age 12 and graduated cum laude.  By this time, he could speak and read fluently French, German, Russian, Greek, Latin, Armenian and Turkish.

At some point in his life, however, James said, “I am tired of thinking.” He took on obscure mechanical jobs that paid just enough for his subsistence.

The lives of these two geniuses show us that intelligence, like everything else we own on earth, does not bring on happiness or success. 

The road to eternal joy and pleasures is Jesus, the Grace birthed for us in a lowly manger thousands of years ago. Without Grace, all that we have on earth burns out. 

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”  Psalm 16:11

Photo credit: smitsonianmag.com