Principles of Intelligence

Podcast

Jar-Jar Binks: Ooh mooey mooey I love you! 
Qui-Gon Jinn: You almost got us killed! Are you brainless? 
Jar-Jar Binks: I spake! 
Qui-Gon Jinn: The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. Now get out of here. 

The above lines always catch my attention whenever I watch Star Wars: ThePhantom Menace. I like this dialogue so much, in fact, that I wrote down the line, “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent”, in my book of favorite quotes which I started in high school.

Back then I had a fetish for labeling people that annoyed me as stupid. I secretly looked at them as a lesser individual as I pitted their ability to think through certain concepts against my own. Somehow, I felt I had ‘won’ some inner competition when I considered myself smarter.  

The way I understood Qui-Gon’s words in those days was that despite Jar-Jar’s ability to speak, he was an unintelligent creature and was, for all intents and purposes, quite brainless. Over time, however, I have come to take a different approach to this quote, which remains one of my favorites to this day, but, for very different reasons.

The fact that Jar-Jar can speak attests to the truth that he indeed has intelligence. And, coincidentally, literally being brainless doesn’t impact intelligence as much as we might think. Plants, for example, do not have brains like humans but have central processing centers that allow them to interact with the world around them and provides a means for intelligence. The following paragraph is from a PRI.org article which I found most interesting as I was researching this concept:

"They [plants] have analagous structures," Pollan explains. "They have ways of taking all the sensory data they gather in their everyday lives ... integrate it and then behave in an appropriate way in response. And they do this without brains, which, in a way, is what's incredible about it, because we automatically assume you need a brain to process information."

The ability to speak does not make one intelligent, but what does? Over time I started asking myself this question and my perspective changed. I no longer felt justified in so easily labeling others as being stupid.  I realized that the act of labeling individuals as ‘smart’ and ‘stupid’ is unnecessary and demeaning.  The purpose behind doing so is merely to feel good about ourselves or lift those whom we admire up on an imaginary and worthless pedestal.  

The following are definitions google gave me when I typed the respective words into my search bar:

Stupid: having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

Smart: having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.

Intelligence: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

No one likes to be considered stupid and everyone experiences the discouragement that comes from not feeling smart enough. The definitions google gave are completely accurate, but we run into problems when we start labeling people as such. People aren’t stupid, but they can make stupid decisions. Everyone has the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills – and are therefore intelligent – but talents and skills vary widely.

Without seeing this clearly, it can be difficult to understand and use our intelligence properly. It also doesn’t help that the definition we work with fails to outline and explain the principles or key components of intelligence. These principles are namely: spirit, light, and truth. It is our responsibility to learn how these fundamental components operate harmoniously, to stop criticizing any individual’s intelligence and instead work together to gain further spirit, light, truth and, in turn, ability.

D&C 84:45 states: “For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

Basically, the Lord is teaching us through this scripture that truth, light and spirit are all one in the same. He also teaches in D&C 93:36 that: “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.”

Put another way, what gives God His glory is His ability to apply His omniscient knowledge and skills to the betterment of His children. And we, His spirit children, are intelligent like unto our Heavenly Father: D&C 93:29 – Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.

We are beings of light and truth and our existence as intelligences, as the above scripture testifies, cannot be fabricated. Before we started our journey here on earth, we were God’s spirit children, living in His presence. As such, we prepared to come live on earth where we would be born as children of mortal parents with physical bodies added on to our bodies of spirit. Mortality was not the beginning of our existence, we have always existed as some form of intelligence or another.

Abraham 3:18 – “Yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.”

According to the above scripture, not only are we eternal beings of intelligence, but we also differ in our levels of intelligence. While we each have light and truth, some shine brighter than others and have added ability to share that light and truth: Abraham 3:18-19–. And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.”

All truth and light comes from God. His brightness far exceeds any of ours and if we rely on Him, He can share that with us to bring us further light, understanding and spiritual strength. All three principles of intelligence work together harmoniously because they are one in the same. They are separate entities, yes, but together they function as the whole of what makes an intelligent being. Spirit is the structure of an intelligence, light is the power that emanates from an intelligence and truth is the foundational law of order that an intelligence lives by.

God is a perfected being of intelligence because there is no limit nor imbalance to His levels of spirit, truth and light. We, on the other hand, are not perfect and lack in how much intelligence we currently have. This life is all about filling in the gaps where we lack and helping others do the same along the way. In essence, the gospel is the road-map that shows us how to rely on the Atonement of Christ to follow this directive.

Christ’s Atonement teaches us first and foremost that every individual is precious to our Heavenly Father. The sacrifice Christ made on our behalf was not for half the world’s population or only a select few individuals. Christ suffered, died and rose from the tomb for all of mankind. He is the savior of the entire world and performed an infinite atonement.

We are all equally admonished to repent and utilize the gift Christ gave us and no one is left out. Our intelligence is the means by which we use our agency to allow Christ’s sacrifice to make us whole. It is because of our heritage of light and truth that we have the opportunities that present themselves during mortality. And, just like we each have access to Christ’s gift, we each have a role to play in God’s plan.  I love how singer David Archuletta put it in his uplifting song, Glorious:

It's like a symphony

Just keep listening

And pretty soon you'll start

To figure out your part

Everyone plays a piece

And there are melodies

In each one of us

Oohhh it's glorious

            This is God’s plan for us; we are not just left here to fend for ourselves. We are all part of a symphony that can potentially provide a harmonious journey for all of us to enjoy. Just like in a symphony, some of the players are more prominent or recognized, but every individual is needed to provide the moving masterpiece. 

It does no good to belittle any one person for being stupid. While it may be true that someone is slower at understanding a specific concept than the average joe, there is inevitably an area in which that individual excels. Because we are part of a vast symphony of the Lord’s work, He blesses each of us with specific and unique gifts and talents. Then, when the opportunities arise, we are able to bless others around us in ways that no one else can. 

You wouldn’t chastise a pencil for not being able to paint like a paintbrush. Likewise, no one should tell anyone else they aren’t good enough because one thing they struggle with comes so naturally to many others. Please remember this the next time you feel frustrated with people around you. Calling someone stupid is doing nothing more than mocking God’s plan for them individually.

 

As we each learn where we fit in to the symphonic anthem of God’s work, it is imperative that we rely on each other. Not just to help each other recognize the talents and gifts we’ve been given, but also to be the Lord’s ministering angels and helping hands. The Lord doesn’t often send visually stunning miracles to fix our problems, instead he directs each individual to use the gifts He’s given them to provide support and love to those in need.

We each have intelligence - light and truth – to share. It is by giving of this freely that we are able to spread the essence of the gospel and provide peace and hope in an ever-darkening world. We need not feel inadequate and small in proportion to the darkness that haunts the world around us. Perhaps putting this darkness into perspective will help still some of these common fears; while the absence of light is the source of darkness, there is still hope in dark times.

We don’t have to look at the absence of light as a sign that it has run away. Instead, we can recognize that darkness is merely a shadow; an obstruction of the light that is still shining brightly. Deiter F. Uchtdorf put it wonderfully when he said the following: “When the darkness of night falls, we do not despair and worry that the sun is extinguished. We do not postulate that the sun is not there or is dead. We understand that we are in a shadow, that the earth will continue to rotate, and that eventually the rays of the sun will reach us once again… Darkness is not an indication that there is no light. Most often, it simply means we’re not in the right place to receive the light.”

I want to reiterate what Uchtdorf said. We don’t need to despair if the shadow of filth and a lack of love is growing rampant in the world. We have the power to work together to shine light on the world and cast those shadows aside.

Again, Uchtdorf very eloquently expounds on this thought: “The healing power of Jesus Christ is not absent in our day… Like layers of sedimentary rock, spiritual pain and grief can build over time, weighing upon our spirits until it is almost too heavy to bear… But just because spiritual trials are real does not mean that they are incurable… The Savior’s healing touch can transform lives in our day just as it did in His… Whatever causes our spiritual ailments, they all have one thing in common: the absence of divine light… The Light of Christ enlightens and saturates the souls of all who hearken to the voice of the Spirit.”

I would hope that message brings peace to all our souls. When our spirits are in the dark, we are merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. Relocating to the light is as simple as hearkening to the voice of the Spirit. We do not need to despair. We have agency and can choose to make use of the intelligence our Heavenly Father has given us. I testify that as we focus on the light of Christ and listen to the Spirit’s voice that we will learn how to discover and strengthen our gifts and talents. Our light and truth will then shine brightly for others around us.