Do you beleive people are born intelligent ?

Question

Or do you beleive that it comes with learning and hard study. My personal opinion is that if you earnt intelligent, you never will be. I think it comes naturally to some, to learn things so easy. While others have great difficultly learning the same things. So... are you born intelligent?

And I tried so hard to spell everything correctly too, that's what im talking about. thanks for pointing that spelling error out to me TKD540. Youre a genious.

Yes I know TKD540, I was just giving it back to you. Lol. Its all good.

Answer 1

It depends on how you measure intelligence.

Is intelligence the ability to read or calculate?
Is intelligence the ability to paint a picture or write a song?
Is intelligence the ability to seem aloof?

Intelligence is a far cry from expereince. Yet expereince is a short breath from intelligence. You really can't produce intelligence without experience.

People sometimes carry knowledge with from from previous lives. This is why you see some people who are naturally adept at doing something at a very early age. They've been perfecting it for countless lifetimes and certain aspects of those abilities stuck.

That is if you beleive such a thing.

I will tell you this. Intelligence is not the end of the picture. In fact, many would argue that it's counter productive to spiritual evolution.

To know is not reality. To experience is reality.

Answer 2

I think people are born with a certain amount of intelligence/mental capacity and that intelligence can be slightly increased or decreased depending on how and how much the person uses their brain. It's about keeping the brain sharp and at its maximum capacity, but I don't believe one can 'learn' to be intelligent by studying hard. One can add to their knowledge, but that won't make them more intelligent, just more educated.

Answer 3

Hi Snowman

Interesting that so many people answered your question, but only lite bothered to ask you what you mean by "intelligence."

The fact is that the IQ rating system was originally invented to spot UNDERperforming students in French schools, not who was smartest.

The US military then took it on as part of the system to evaluate potential recruits. And somewhere along the line it got turned into an ALLEGED measurement of how smart or dumb someone is.

Talking of IQ in particular, the only thing an IQ test measures is how good you are at doing IQ tests (I personally do very well at IQ tests, but there are still times I can act really dumb).

Trivia: A wide-ranging study in the US showed that the average college/university professor has an IQ of only 120. That's at least 25 points short of the lowest score for a genius, which is variously estimated between 145 and 150 [ last time I looked ;-) ]

In practice, quite minor cultural differences can make a major difference in a person's IQ score. Once upon a time, black people in America were seen by many white people, from all social and educational levels, as being intellectually inferior. In reality a major part of the differences could be traced to factors that had nothing to do with inheritance or innate ability, but were related to poor diet, poor education and low expectations.

This is not to say that purely physical factors have no part in determining how smart you are. They do. But the kind of things you cannot change, like your genes, play a far smaller part than people used to think (probably only 25% at most, possibly even less).
So the suggestion that you inherit your intelligence from just your mother really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Much of the current difference in average IQ ratings in various ethnic groups is down to cultural factors like whether it's "cool" or "macho" to be well educated.

There are also, as lite suggested, different ways of being "intelligent," as described by Howard Gardner in his various books on "multiple intelligences", which include musical intelligence, linguistic, logical/mathematical, etc. Gardner originally identified seven intelligences, but now many people believe there are eight.

Answer 4

Could be a combination of both. Genetics could be a factor.

The ability to absorb and retain information is a sign of good intellect.

The ability to use that restored information for advancing ones position in life is the mark of a truly intelligent person.

Do no confuse intelligence with the chain of command that you see in the leadership structure. Those on top dishing out the crap, down through the chain...may be the biggest morons this planet ever produced.

Intelligence in my definition is the ability to decipher information and decide what is junk and what is important.

Answer 5

I think some people seem to find learning easier than others BUT from my observations of my own family and friends it is the motivated ones that do best in life. Being disciplined helps too.
Also some people are very academic but extremely thick when it comes to practical things. My mother used to tell us a story years ago that when she was a nursing student the nurse that scored the highest in theory exams once boiled thermometers to sterilize them.
I have two mechanical bro in laws, one got top marks in his exams and the other never did any exams but never fails to diagnose engine trouble correctly by just listening to the motor of a vehicle and is by far the better mechanic... I could go on....

Answer 6

I believe there is a mixture...People who get born with certain abilities cannot enrich them because of their environment and others, not so bright, study hard and become smarter than the first ones...I suppose I was born quite intelligent, but I also learnt many things and I am still learning...

Answer 7

It is a combination. The human brain develops in so many ways in early childhood, depending on the stimuli received and experiences.

Good overall health helps a child to expand on its native intelligence exponentially. A healthy body fueling an inquisitive mind makes for faster, higher quality development.

For example, my daughter was always considered exceptionally bright, but she had a few advantages--20/15 vision in both eyes, flexibility bordering on double-jointedness, and the ability to swim like a fish. She learned to read by age 3 and competed in triathalons from age 7 to 12.

It made sense to provide advanced math tutoring throughout the school year and academic immersion camps in the summers for her; she could take these challenges in stride because she could master things quickly and move on.

It's amazing to me when someone who is less gifted physically shows a well-developed intellect or other capability, like the blind Stevie Wonder or the seriously disabled Stephen Hawking. These are people whose bodies didn't cooperate with them, yet they were able to overcome their physical limitations almost effortlessly.

Kudos to the moms of both of those guys for bringing the world to them since they couldn't go out to greet it!

Answer 8

I was born intelligent but that doesn't go for everyone.

I think people who are born intelligent simply become more intelligent.

Those who aren't born with the intelligence gene have a lower I. Q.

Answer 9

Yeah, your born intelligent, by the time the blogbaba was four he was a chess master. You are able to learn stuff, but if the inate ability to learn isn't there your stuck where you start.

Answer 10

no, since to know is to knowledge, intelligence is something that must be gained through hard work of studying, though it has been said that there're people who are born intelligent, the going rate is still pretty medium.