Intelligence Is Overrated: What Does God Think About IQ and AI?

How important is AI today?

“AI is critically important today, fundamentally transforming how we live and work by powering everyday applications like search engines and streaming service recommendations, driving business automation, and accelerating solutions to global challenges in healthcare, climate change, and disaster response.”

At least that’s what Google’s AI overview tells me.

Personally, I wonder if a lot of business leaders feel like their companies or products will be left behind if they don’t claim to be using AI. And fear of missing out seems to be infecting investors too.

“We’re in a typical hype cycle: overpromise, underdeliver, followed by a massive investment wave. CEOs are saying this must be a multi-trillion-dollar market; otherwise, the hundreds of billions already invested have gone to waste,” says Melody Brue, vice president and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

I’m not saying that the warp speed development of AI large language models isn’t having massive impact on our world, for good and for bad.

I’m just experiencing AI hype fatigue. I’m wondering if the current obsession is fueled by our fascination with how AI compares with us. With our intelligence. With what we think makes us uniquely human.

We don’t worry that cars and planes go faster than we do. We aren’t concerned that excavators and other heavy equipment can lift more than we can.

But it does feel a bit (or a lot) creepy to imagine a machine learning, thinking, deciding and creating in ways we thought only humans could do.

Is it possible we tend to overestimate the importance of intelligence?

Is intelligence what makes us human?

Humans are more intelligent than the plants and animals on earth. Evolutionists and animal lovers might argue that it is only a matter of degree. Depending on how you measure it, some animals might be “smarter” about some specialized things than we are.

Satan has set up this evil world so that it is easy for people to forget God—to act as if He doesn’t exist, even if deep down we feel He does. So perhaps it’s that hard-to-pin-down concept of “consciousness” that sets humans apart? You can read more about this in our article “Human Consciousness and Free Will.”

But biblically, what defines humans is the fact that God created us different. We are in His image and likeness, and we have been given a human spirit—what the Bible calls the spirit in man (Job 32:8; Zechariah 12:1; 1 Corinthians 2:11; see “What Is the Spirit in Man?”). This gives us uniquely human mental abilities and records our thoughts and actions. Even more, it is the interface that gives us access to a realm beyond the physical. No animal or machine has that.

And the spirit in man is what gives us the potential to become more and more like God—to one day become a spirit member of His family!

Limits of intelligence

God created and made possible all forms of intelligence.

Animals are perfectly suited to what they were designed to do. Their intelligence is limited, but exactly what they need.

Human beings are given the intelligence we need to fulfill God’s purpose—though most of us waste it. Our potential is far greater than what we use on a day-to-day basis. But if we stretched our minds to their full potential, we would run into limits as well.

And God created the limits that bound the current growth and the possible potential of AI. No artificial general intelligence or superintelligence will surprise or rival the Creator. Even if it were to become powerful enough to destroy us, God wouldn’t let it.

He promises to save humanity from self-destruction, whatever tools we might develop (Matthew 24:22; see “Will AI Destroy Humanity?”).

Why smart people do dumb things

Very intelligent people have been involved in creating all the many ways we can destroy ourselves. But why? Why doesn’t intellect prevent us from making such foolish choices?

We prize acquiring more and more knowledge, data, information. We might even see the importance of deriving understanding from the facts. But we tend to undervalue the distillation of that understanding that produces wisdom.

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom,” said Isaac Asimov, author of hundreds of books of science and science fiction. Sadly, things have gotten only worse since he said that.

The Bible has much to say about wisdom. “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold” (Proverbs 3:13-14; see “How to Be Wise”).

But that proverb is not talking about just any wisdom, because there is an earthly wisdom that is selfish and destructive, and a wisdom from God that is pure, peaceable and full of good fruits (James 3:15-17; see “What Is Wisdom From Above?”)

Leaving God out of the picture

Unless it’s hallucinating, AI can tell you that it was created by humans.

The plants and animals and the universe itself tell us that God created them (Romans 1:20).

Even the demons believe in God—and tremble (James 2:19)!

But Satan has set up this evil world so that it is easy for people to forget God—to act as if He doesn’t exist, even if deep down we feel He does.

God calls out the intelligent ones who ignore Him and turn their backs on His laws. Their thinking becomes foolish and futile, He says in Romans 1:21. “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (verse 22).

Human intelligence, and the artificial intelligences we create, will ultimately produce foolishness if we do not acknowledge God.

Connecting with the Ultimate Intelligence

God exists, and He lives in a realm beyond the physical, unbounded by the limits of space and time. The spirit realm cannot be accessed by the physical senses. It is completely invisible to us and to the machines we create.

But God offers humans a bridge across that vast gap. As the apostle Paul wrote:

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-11, emphasis added).

The Bible explains that the Son of God crossed that gap to live and die as a human, making it possible for us to also become children of God!

The Spirit of God allows humans to correctly process information to come to have understanding and wisdom on a spiritual level. Seeing and understanding what we can’t perceive physically allows us to begin thinking and acting as God does.

Underlying God’s thinking is His self-sacrificing love—a love that doesn’t add up from a human perspective. It doesn’t seem smart to us to unselfishly live God’s way of giving and serving. But spiritually, God’s way fills the deepest needs God built into us when He made us in His image.

Though people care a lot about how smart someone is, God isn’t much concerned with our intelligence quotient (IQ), since He gave us our intelligence in the first place. But He does care deeply about our love quotient (LQ)—how we strive to grow in love for Him and for others—how we become more like Him. This is a level of intelligence that cannot be achieved artificially—only spiritually through the Spirit of God.

What’s your LQ?

Love is a much-misused word today, but the kind of love the Bible teaches is not the selfish, lustful kind. It is an eternal characteristic of God Himself and a fruit of His Spirit. It transcends this physical world, but it deeply affects our thoughts and actions here and now.

The smart choice is to connect to the Ultimate Intelligence. As the apostle John wrote:

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:1-2).

What should our response to God’s love be?

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love . . .

“We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:7-8, 19).

Recognizing God’s love and reflecting it back to Him and to other people is explained in more detail throughout the book of 1 John, and throughout the Bible. Love is spiritual, but it involves concrete actions in this world.

This includes walking as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), not hating but loving our brothers (verses 9-10) and fighting “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (verse 16).

Love means becoming morally pure, overcoming sin and obeying God’s laws (1 John 3:3-4; 5:3).

Jesus summarized godly love in the two great commandments (Matthew 22:37-40). You can study this more deeply using our article “The Great Commandment” and related resources on Life, Hope & Truth.

The conclusion of the matter

Human intelligence was created by God. He gave us the ability to create what we call artificial intelligence. These are not inherently bad things.

But when we leave God out of the picture and value intelligence over wisdom—what we can get over what we can give—the results can be very bad.

The smart choice is to connect to the Ultimate Intelligence. Our Heavenly Father wants us to become like Him in our thinking, in our actions, in our motivations, in our character—so that we can be His children, enjoying His love and finding purpose and satisfaction forever.

Because of His love, ultimately “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Please take the time to let God’s awesome plan sink in. This is the real human potential, and you can learn more about it in our free download God’s Purpose for You: Discovering Why You Were Born.