WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?
Posted By AwenMan on May 17, 2012
When Alfred Binet (of IQ test fame) was asked what is intelligence, his famous enigmatic answer was “Intelligence is what my test measures.” Intelligence can be more intelligently (please excuse the pun) described as the understanding of concepts and relationships along with problem saving abilities. In 1983 Howard Gardner went to the opposite extreme of the simplistic Binet definition and proposed that intelligence was actually eight separate and independent abilities of Spatial, Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalistic. From peer pressure to these eight there can be added two more abilities of Moral and Existential to complete his Theory of Multiple Intelligences.Gardner’s work lets us identify a total of ten abilities but they are really just aspects of three general intelligences: IQ, EQ and I am adding RQ (Religious Intelligence Quotient.) The fact that IQ, EQ and RQ can be dissected down to meaningful components does not justify the raising of these components to full independent Intelligence status (though the separate components are useful in identifying idiot-savantism.) The general and persuasive usefulness of the umbrella nature of I/EQ is long established as opposed to dissection by academics.
It is an interesting side note that multiple intelligences can be related to the very ancient Chakra system. The relevant Chakras are noted below.
IQ
IQ is the oldest concept and conforms to what most people think of when they refer to intelligence. The following of Gardiner’s abilities constitute the defining and bounding aspects of this intelligence and are to at least some degree integral in traditional IQ tests.
LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL (Crown Chakra) is very self obviously an ability under IQ
SPATIAL (Brow Chakra) refers to our kinesthetic ability to interpret the bounding and relational aspects of physical objects
BODILY-KINESTHETIC (Sacral Chakra) the bounding and interrelationship aspects of our own body
NATURALISTIC (Solar Plexus Chakra) is similar to Bodily-kinesthetic but here considers interrelationships of items in nature
The two auditory related abilities (Throat Chakra)
LINGUISTIC is our verbal and abstract thought abilities and has long been known to be a reflection of intellectual ability
MUSICAL is said to compromise of sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones and music and to recognize acoustic relationships. This auditory ability is an abettor to the linguistic ability as body language experts have long known that most communication is not with the actual words said. It is interesting that statistical research has found a strong correlation between people of high IQ and a very decided preference for instrumental music, especially classical,
EQ (Heart Chakra)
IQ has been around seemingly forever but did not explain why high IQ people so often failed so miserably in fields like business. A second intelligence of Emotional Intelligence Quotient, EQ, was born to explain the IQ shortfall. In a recent book called Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves we have similar identification of EQ core ability areas of Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Social Management. I would hold that these are expansions ofGardner’s Intrapersonal and Interpersonal abilities that add further clarification.
INTRAPERSONAL is how astute we are at Self-Awareness and Self-Management strategies
INTERPERSONAL is the Social Awareness and Management strategies and how well we employ them
RQ (Root Chakra)
Religious Intelligence Quotient, RQ, seems the natural child of the research into intelligence roots. Here I would include the remaining two Multiple Intelligence abilities of Existential and Moral. RQ is not an ongoing analysis or evaluation process so that like EQ we have that it does not fit in to regular IQ. Statistical research has shown the people with the highest IQ are rather exclusively atheist (by default strong religious believers are the diametrically opposite of atheists, and so again by default have to be defined as idiot-savant idiots in the intellectual ability of Existential Intelligence ability.)
It might be wise to avoid the word “religion” in discussing this intelligence as it is a very value laden trigger word. It is taking heed of the work of professor S. I. Hayakawa when he coined the terms snarl words and purr words as they relate to contentious issues. Just a simple RQ or Gardner’s term Existential might be better words and more conducive to open dialogue.
Our RQ, or religiosity, is shaped by three innate factors:
the GOD GENE. The human VMAT2 gene has been identified as creating a human desire for an ethereal alpha-male. It is a natural extension of our being social animals who naturally crave and follow an alpha-male whether that person is a committee head or the leader of a nation. In dealing with innate morals our minds anthropomorphize this desire into creating a god. It parallels the human genetic ability for language where all humans are genetically predisposed for it but the actual language they end up speaking hinges on ecological factors like their parents.
the GOD MODULE. The prime tool of the God Gene is the God Module found in the brain’s temporal lobes. It has become known as the science of Neurotheology and is an interesting field too vast to be contemplated here. What is important to note is that “religious” experiences that many ascribe to a god are actually just natural human experience – no god needed. As an example: religious ecstasy has been defined as the religious ultimate and eternal experience of being in the presence of God but in reality is found to be a psycho-physical condition of the God Module – again no god needed,
INNATE MORALITY (Multiple Intelligences’ Morals) equals spirituality. Morals to the ancients as an expression of our genes as social animals was a mysterious and “spiritual” phenomenon not understood, and so attributed to a god as an explanation. One way that these morals can be felt is through Freud’s Superego activity, again imaginatively interpreted as god activity by the ancients.
Many YouTube videos show large predatory animals taking loving care of the baby of a normally prey animal. This type of “spirituality” exhibited by animals shows that spirituality and morals are not unique to humans but something we share with all social and herd animals. It is easy to find stories of the loving family nature of these social animals as in Rudyard Kipling’s story of animal love in The Jungle Book, it is something we can all relate to. The very human emotions of a family pets is behavior we can immediately relate to. Another example is the great social sense sheep dogs have that is the required complex social sense to herd sheep.A very recent example on YouTube was the recorded emotional wake march of wild elephants on the death of “elephant whisperer” Lawrence Anthony.
A family animal wolf does not go to Wolf Church on Sundays and ask his Wolf God for guidance. Spirituality and morals are genetically innate to the wolf just as they are to us human animals. (A wolf god is not such a far out or new idea as more than 2500 years ago ancient classical Greek philosopher Xenophanes postulated that if horses and oxen had hands and could draw pictures, their gods would look remarkably like horses and oxen.) Early humans felt this same genetic push as do the animals but then we humans are a conscious thinking entity creating the various gods and religious creeds as our primitive answers to these not understood feelings. Humans as social animals do not have either their morality or spirituality come from a god but have it come from genetics just like any other social animal. The upshot of all this is that morals are just as legitimate an intelligence study as any other native ability
As a final note this is a very rudimentary analysis of RQ that needs much further research. It is also a fight against established religious seminaries, and by their ilk in other institutions around the world, of being brainwashing schools of hardened arbitrary creed – reality and intelligence optional.







