Sharper, if the divisions are truly arbitrary and on a basis uncorrelated with individual intelligence then the difference in population average will be (crudely speaking) on the order of 1/sqrt(N) where N is the size of each population. N is so large here that the sorts of interracial “differences” that are inevitable on the grounds you give are also clearly negligible, and no one who claims that races do, or don’t, differ in intelligence is talking about such tiny differences.
Eliezer, leaving aside the bit about God, I think there’s at least one way in which differences (in actual intelligence, or in others’ estimates of your intelligence, or in other things that matter) can be worse when they’re distributed according to race: network effects. Nations, societies, cultural groups, families, etc., tend to be somewhat homogeneous by race. So if you belong to a race that’s systematically poor (to take an example that uncontroversially does occur) then you’re doubly screwed: you have no money, and all the people around you who might have been able to help you also have no money, and all the social structures that might have been built up to help you aren’t there because no one else around you has any money either.
Sharper, if the divisions are truly arbitrary and on a basis uncorrelated with individual intelligence then the difference in population average will be (crudely speaking) on the order of 1/sqrt(N) where N is the size of each population. N is so large here that the sorts of interracial “differences” that are inevitable on the grounds you give are also clearly negligible, and no one who claims that races do, or don’t, differ in intelligence is talking about such tiny differences.
Eliezer, leaving aside the bit about God, I think there’s at least one way in which differences (in actual intelligence, or in others’ estimates of your intelligence, or in other things that matter) can be worse when they’re distributed according to race: network effects. Nations, societies, cultural groups, families, etc., tend to be somewhat homogeneous by race. So if you belong to a race that’s systematically poor (to take an example that uncontroversially does occur) then you’re doubly screwed: you have no money, and all the people around you who might have been able to help you also have no money, and all the social structures that might have been built up to help you aren’t there because no one else around you has any money either.