Posted on 07/08/2026 9:20:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s a fact that brilliant people believe in Christianity. And it’s also a fact that brilliant people do not.
For example, A.C. Grayling, a high-IQ British philosopher and historian, sits squarely in the unbeliever camp, saying in his book The God Argument, “The cumulative case against religion shows it to be a hangover from the infancy of modern humanity”. Then you have Michael Faraday, the eminent English chemist and physicist who contributed vastly to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism, who said: “The book of nature, which we have to read, is written by the finger of God.”
So, what can we conclude from the reality that really smart people both believe and don’t believe? I’d say one takeaway is that there’s more at play than just raw intelligence when it comes to receiving Christ.
I’m certainly not the first person to point this out. Sigmund Freud, for example, asserted that Christians are primarily motivated by life-after-death desires and said such hopes are “illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind.”
Philosopher Aldous Huxley in Ends and Means admitted his motivation for disavowing Christianity when he wrote: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning … for myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”
So, while insults about being “dumb” are commonly hurled around in God arguments, the truth is there are many non-intellectual motivating factors at work that move a person either towards or away from God. But there’s more underneath the covers when it comes to why one person receives the Gospel while another declines, especially since the evangelistic message itself can be, shall we say, prickly.
Figuring that out would cause me to continuously scratch holes in my head if the Bible didn’t clearly tell us why it happens.
The anatomy of belief and unbelief
It’s a fact that the Bible itself admits the Gospel of Christ is hard to believe.
If you’re a skeptic of Christianity and think its teachings don’t add up, there you go — even the Bible backs you. But you probably won’t agree with the two reasons why Scripture says that is.
First up is the picture the Word paints of how all of us come into this world and our initial spiritual state. The Bible says we enter life “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), which means we’re askew from the start where God is concerned. That results in spiritual brainpower that’s in constant rebellion against God and morally unable to believe the gospel, just as Paul says: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Rom. 8:6–7).
Scripture says we have a “reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:28), one that is void of any ability to make right choices towards God. In his work The Enchiridion, Augustine says we have no freedom of will with this kind of mind to move toward God whatsoever: “When man by his own free-will sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will was lost.”
We’re still free to make choices, of course, but we choose poorly because we’re chained to unrighteous thinking. Calvin describes it as having unhealthy self-determination: “Man, when placed under this bondage, [was] deprived not of will, but of soundness of will”.
That “unsoundness” is why Jesus told his detractors they couldn’t respond to what He was telling them about Himself: “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word” (John 8:43). If they had “heard” it, Paul says, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).
That’s strike one.
Strike two is the message of the Gospel itself, which the Bible describes like this: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).
Paul goes on to contrast the anatomy of belief and unbelief and highlight that acceptance only comes about through God’s effectual call on a person:
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:21–24).
One group, Paul says, dismisses the Gospel. Another group made up of the same kinds of people accepts it. Why? Paul answers that question by saying, “…by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30, my emphasis).
It’s by “His doing” because the message of the cross stands in stark contrast to every other religion in the world that is works-based, which is a system that clicks with us whether we like the idea of it or not. Do good, get good; be bad, get bad.
But not the Gospel.
Tim Keller says the radical message of Christ that runs counter to that can be hard to accept on whichever side of the fence an unbelieving person is on: “Grace is insulting. One side says they don’t need forgiveness whereas the other side says that’s too easy.” G. K. Chesterton said the same thing about the latter when he wrote, “What the denouncer of dogma really means is not that dogma is bad; but rather that dogma is too good to be true.”
What about you?
Maybe you’re a really smart person. Maybe you’ve said yes to Christ. Maybe you’ve said no.
Either way, it’s not because of your mental powers. In his book, Hard to Believe, John MacArthur flatly states: “Human intellect plays no role in redemption.”
Scripture affirms what he says by putting it this way: “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (1 Cor. 12:18).
Again, brilliant minds have landed on both sides of Christianity for centuries. The Bible says the difference isn't IQ, but whether God has called a person and graciously opened their eyes to the “foolish” message of the cross, which is the wisdom of Christ.
If that hasn’t happened to a person, then yes, to them, Christianity is definitely hard to believe.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
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Then take them to Ezekiel 36, with emphasis on 22-27. (New Spirit)
Then have them read the Gospel of John and the book of Acts.
When you go outside at night and look at the stars, or if your lucky enough to live in a place at which you can see the glow of the Milky Way, you understand how small we are, how little we know, and how anything wonderful is possible.
The Spirit cannot be understood by looking only from the flesh. The Cross is foolishness to them that perish. The Holy Father has to tap them on the shoulder. When we have nothing, we must chose to become someone who is listening and always waiting for that day.
The just will live by faith, made alive by reason of it.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” - Habakkuk 2:3
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” - Matthew 7:7-8
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in Heaven.” - Matthew 16:17
“No man can come to Me unless the Father who hath sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the Last Day” - John 6:44
Why it’s hard to Believe?
.
It’s Spiritually grasped and the
Holy Spirit begins to Work within
The Believer.
For example, A.C. Grayling, a high-IQ British philosopher and historian, sits squarely in the unbeliever camp, saying in his book The God Argument, “The cumulative case against religion shows it to be a hangover from the infancy of modern humanity”. Then you have Michael Faraday, the eminent English chemist and physicist who contributed vastly to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism, who said: “The book of nature, which we have to read, is written by the finger of God.”Grayling was born after the dawn of the Atomic Age - Faraday died before James Clerk Maxwell's unification of electricity and magnetism was published in consolidated form in 1873 with "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism."So, what can we conclude from the reality that really smart people both believe and don’t believe? I’d say one takeaway is that there’s more at play than just raw intelligence when it comes to receiving Christ.
Faraday died before the discovery of the electron (1897) and the development of a coherent atomic model (Thomson in 1904; Rutherford in 1911; Bohr in 1913). Quantum theory and Relativity appeared decades after his death.
In short, Faraday - when he wrote about "God's finger" - lived in a word which had scarcely outgrown the belief in a host of (now) patently absurd scientific notions.
The idea of "Luminiferous Ether" was still universally accepted. The "Caloric Theory of Heat" still enjoyed widespread popularity. And "Vitalism" was still influential in Biology.
Faraday was a member (he served as a deacon and elder) of the obscure Sandemanian sect - a strict, literalist offshoot of the Church of Scotland. The Sandemanians espoused a bizarre theology with numerous absurd and even laughable practices.
Faraday was most certainly intelligent - but in the same way that Aristoteles or Bede the Venerable were intelligent.
But as far as theology is concerned, Faraday is hardly someone we should look to.
Regards,
The Bible says the difference isn’t IQ, but whether God has called a person and graciously opened their eyes to the “foolish” message of the cross, which is the wisdom of Christ.
“Atheists” are often the most religious, dogmatic, and “holier-than-thou.”
It’s much easier to believe if you know what the bible says.
Prophecy is unfolding before our very eyes.
Only God can declare the end from the beginning.
“When you believe in things that you don’t understand and you suffer.” Stevie Wonder
It is a mathematical axiom that there are more things that are true than can be proven. (This is called Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.)
#1 It is one thing to fill in the gap by insisting that everything can be proven. (This is Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.)
#2 It is another thing to fill in the gap with a deistic God (that there was and probably still is an entity beyond space and time that brought the universe into existence).
#3 We Christians have a third way: a personal God who knows us and loves us. Many of us are “two book” theists. We believe that God reveals himself to us through the Book of Nature (science) and through the collection of books known as the Bible. Actually, many of us believe in multiple sources of information: history and common sense, introspection and authority, in addition to faith and reason.
We have, in this life, faith, hope and love where faith is belief in things that cannot be proven, and hope is that we will be blessed if we act in good faith. In the next life, where all things are known, we will only have love.
There is another way (actually, a lot of other ways). I’ll talk about two of these other ways.
#4 There is polytheism. In the polytheistic view, there are gods - at least two - who are at odds with each other. These gods - being multiple in number - aren’t consistent with each other. Indeed, there is no consistency in the universe and life is arbitrary and capricious.
#5 There is power. In this view, we aren’t subject to either God or to arbitrary gods but to the strongest among us. There is no right or wrong, but Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedung, or some other strong man imposes their will on as many others as they can.
The latter two - polytheism and power - can be said to be the things that you don’t understand that cause you to suffer.
cue Stevie Wonder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hwNY3ni10
The Fear of God is the beginning of all understanding.
The bible tells us clearly why “smart / intelligence” is not a way to Christ
1 Cor 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
"Michael Faraday, the eminent English chemist and physicist" - AKA someone who actually drilled into the actual nature of reality and came away humbled.
Why hard to believe for unbel3ivers? B3cause they have scales over their eyes preventing them from seeing truth, and it is foolishness to them. The evil one keeps them blind, but they almost willingly keep themselves blind p43fering the dsrkn3ss to the light.
“The Bible says we enter life “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), which means we’re askew from the start where God is concerned. That results in spiritual brainpower that’s in constant rebellion against God and morally unable to believe the gospel,…”
“Scripture says we have a “reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:28), one that is void of any ability to make right choices towards God.”
“The Bible says the difference isn’t IQ, but whether God has called a person and graciously opened their eyes to the “foolish” message of the cross, which is the wisdom of Christ.”
Kinda makes it seem like it’s not necessarily our fault.
It comes down to pride, or ego. For some, their minds can accept endless space and time yet are repelled by the notion of an infinite mind/personality; that while they might consider the possibility of extra-terrestrial beings, they can’t accept the idea that we or similar creatures aren’t the pinnacle of conscious existence.
Thinking it was David Wilkerson (someone else?) who told a man seated to him on an airline flight that said, “I don’t believe the Bible.” .....”that’s because there is sin in your life that you are unwilling to give up that the Bible exposes....”
May many of us fellow Freepers share eternity with God and each other. It will be glorious. It was what we were made for.
Some smart people tried to prove God doesn’t exist and not only became believers, but evangelists.
Other smart people (Isaac Asimov” for one) wrote: “Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. I have done the Old Testament and the Apocrypha and am working away on the New Testament, and I must say that I stand amazed at the highly intelligent people who have taken so much of the Bible so seriously.”
I am a Christian, but I can understand how the “faith in the unseen” can become an obstacle - especially with some 45K sects of Christianity that all interpret many parts of the Bible differently - and how Catholic Church canons/policies have changed over the last 2000 years.
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