Steven: If you think an IQ-200 extreme-polymath pope who pondered all current and future arguments for atheism would still remain a Christian, then maybe.
Unfortunately, I know from personal experience that there are people who are more intelligent than I am who have been “hooked” by religious memes. I know of several Cambridge mathematicians who are currently at PhD level, one of them in mathematical logic, who are members of this evangelical Christian organization. One in particular is extremely bright: triple first, British mathematics Olympiad, can grasp abstract mathematical concepts twice as fast as I can. When you question these kinds of people, you don’t get anywhere, I’ve tried it. They just keep coming up with ever more bizzare (but not quite logically contradictory) positions, up to and including abandonment of Occam’s razor, re-defining words in the ethical vocabulary, doubting the entire scientific method, etc. I’m sure many people here have had similar experiences. What is to say that the CEV of (all of) humanity won’t go like this?
Steven: If you think an IQ-200 extreme-polymath pope who pondered all current and future arguments for atheism would still remain a Christian, then maybe.
Unfortunately, I know from personal experience that there are people who are more intelligent than I am who have been “hooked” by religious memes. I know of several Cambridge mathematicians who are currently at PhD level, one of them in mathematical logic, who are members of this evangelical Christian organization. One in particular is extremely bright: triple first, British mathematics Olympiad, can grasp abstract mathematical concepts twice as fast as I can. When you question these kinds of people, you don’t get anywhere, I’ve tried it. They just keep coming up with ever more bizzare (but not quite logically contradictory) positions, up to and including abandonment of Occam’s razor, re-defining words in the ethical vocabulary, doubting the entire scientific method, etc. I’m sure many people here have had similar experiences. What is to say that the CEV of (all of) humanity won’t go like this?