Every blessing of God is an opportunity given to human beings that calls for a corresponding responsibility.

Health is a blessing that should be used to fast, to pray, and to strive on God’s path so that one can express gratitude for this blessing. If a person gives this gratitude, God will return that body in the next world for eternity and without flaw, and with all its potential revealed.

Intelligence is one of God’s favors. If the horizon of one’s mind has been enlightened by the lights of revelation, and he is therefore distanced from inappropriate things and makes decisions according to the true path, intelligence is a source of inspiration. If he uses the blessing of his mind appropriately and introduces Truth to those who have strayed, he is giving the mind its due. On the contrary, if he only uses intelligence for worldly or evil tasks, he is being ungrateful for that blessing.

Power of expression is one of the greatest blessings that God has given humanity—so much so, that the name of the Qur’anic chapter where this is explained is called Rahman (Mercy). Al-Rahman is one of the Exalted Names of God. Some of the manifestations of God’s Mercy are giving means of subsistence in a broad circle to everyone even if they are not believers, and nourishing creation with various blessings, including human’s power of expression. This ability makes them eligible to be an addressee to God. They may understand God’s words and at the same time express their thoughts to Him. God says, “Come, pray to Me and bow in My presence.” Then they can say, “praise be to God” and with faithful and obedient devotion they can stand in God’s presence. In one sense, this is understanding God and speaking with Him. One of the Successors (the generation after the Companions of the Prophet) said, “If a person who reads the Qur’an says that he spoke with God, it would not be a lie.” Therefore one who says, “praise be to God” can be considered to have spoken with God.

The prayers that believers recite every day actually reflect a conversation with God:

You are the Most Beneficent and the Most Compassionate: You first gave me consciousness and then the ability to express this consciousness. This is a manifestation of Your Mercy.

You are the Master of the Day of Judgment: I am preparing for that day within the framework of Your commands.

I serve only You and I seek help only from You: I do so in order not to be smashed under the weight of servanthood.

Most people probably never really ponder the prayers in this way, but if they were to reflect, the prayers allow them to rise to a very honorable station.

If a person went and spoke with a head of state, he would talk about it everywhere; he would find an opportunity in every environment to mention that conversation. Therefore, if a person views talking with a head of state as this important and mentions it everywhere, then he should think deeply about what it means to have the privilege of addressing God.

A sacred saying from the Prophet (hadith qudsi) is stated as follows:

“I share the recitation with my servant in prayer; half belongs to Me and half to him and what My servant wants will be given to him. When the servant says, ‘Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds,’ Exalted and Glorious God says, ‘My servant praised Me!’ When he says, ‘Most Glorious, Most Merciful,’ God says, ‘My servant glorified Me.’

“When he says, ‘Master of the Day of Judgment,’ God says, ‘My servant exalted Me.’ When he says, ‘You do we worship and Your aid we seek,’ God commends him: ‘This is a pledge between Me and My servant. I gave him what he wanted.’

When the servant says, ‘Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace, Those whose portion is not wrath, and who go not astray,’ God says, ‘This belongs to My servant and he has been given what he wants.’”

In recitation, the chapter al-Fatiha is divided between the servant and God—some is spoken by the servant, and some is answered by God. In a sense, this is nothing other than a conversation with God. Consequently, the power of expression is a great blessing from God, and its greatest right is to praise God, who honored human beings with the power of expression.

Like a town crier, we must speak of our Lord, who gave us the capability of expression, everywhere we go. If you give a crier a little money, he will promote his wares from morning till evening in the marketplace. Salesmen do the same thing; they go to houses, fawn on people and try to sell their goods. In the end, what they will sell is one or two pots and pans. In the same way, Heaven will be given to us for doing very easy tasks. We are in a position to be made worthy of seeing God’s Beauty by using, in the best way, the power of expression bestowed upon us by God. Even if no one remained on earth to hear us, then we have the responsibility to climb the mountains to the skies and live for the excitement of talking of God to the jinn and demons. As a friend of truth said, even if one is imprisoned and there is no one around, then he should try and teach the demons about God to fulfill his responsibility.

The subject is the importance of a person returning a favor given by God by making the best use of the ability bestowed. Only by means of this kind of reciprocation can gratitude for that blessing be fully shown. God will continue bestowing that blessing here and in the next world. If a person only gives the right of property, but does not give the right of his mind, health, or power of expression, then he still will have been ungrateful. If a person cannot speak, he has a pen. If he does not give the due of the pen, then he will have shown ingratitude before God. If one who has strong mental abilities does not use them for God, then he will have been unjust. Whatever God has given a person should be used on the path of God to teach others about Him.

If a person does not give gratitude for his other blessings, but only gives financial aid when his financial situation is favorable, then at least he has performed a large part of his responsibility. If he gives help beyond the alms tax, financial aid is a serious sacrifice, and voluntary acts and altruism within this framework is great, because it is the virtue of giving for God’s sake. In fact, our Prophet said, “Generosity is like a tree. Its roots are in Heaven and its branches have hung down to this world. Whoever lives under that tree and behaves generously, sooner or later he will hold on to one of the branches and rise to Heaven where the tree’s roots are.” It can be understood from this that a generous person, even if he is a sinner—God willing—will eventually enter Heaven. If a sinner does not deny God, and he is generous, it is said that he will enter Heaven. Saying, “A stingy person is closer to Hell,” our Master used an expression of warning for miserliness. We can infer that since generosity is one of God’s attributes, He will not put a person with that attribute into Hell.

Attributes are very important; people must give what is due to the attributes God blessed them with. In this way, one’s work should be arranged according to God’s blessings. Worldly tasks should not be forgotten and neglected. Regardless of where he is, a believer should always be at the forefront of those living in his own time. Doing this, he will always be avant-garde—but while doing this, he should put his life in order and never neglect God’s rights. In short, a believer should use all the abilities God has bestowed upon him, and use them in such a way that he has given those blessings their due.

Who are gifted students?

Gifted students display distinctive qualities in many ways. They usually think differently than their friends; they can come up with extraordinary ideas and self-developed thoughts; details are important for them; they have the ability to learn quickly and progress in academic and intellectual fields; they display high performance in one or more type of art. However, these talented people only make up 2% of the society. These individuals do not like to overexert themselves to increase their grades in education, nor do they study in a systematic manner or do homework. They tend to choose practical solutions, produce new ideas, and try to develop these ideas. They analyze and question whatever they learn, but nevertheless they can still be disorganized. They are often the students who cause problems at school. Awkward and disruptive in the classroom, they can be argumentative or uninvolved in activities. Research into the lives of many people who throughout history have caused great change has discovered that the outstanding talent of these famous people usually passed unnoticed by their teachers, and they were actually problematic children in their early years as students. Edison, for example, was taught at home by his mother, an experienced teacher, because he could not conform to or thrive in school life.

To help teachers to recognize gifted students, various tests have been introduced into the education systems of schools in the West. One of these exams is the IQ test. Some consider IQ tests as the most efficient way of discovering the abilities of students, while some other educationalists say that the only “skill” an IQ test indicates is the ability to take IQ tests; in fact the more you take, the higher you score.

In general, gifted students are recognized by the following qualities:

1. They are quick to learn; they understand and learn the topics in which they have greater ability more easily than other pupils, and they comment on or question the information provided.

2. They try to improvise on whatever they learn; they ask questions that will assist them in progressing in the topics they learn and constantly try to develop on these subjects.

3. They enjoy speaking with older people and usually choose the company of friends older than themselves. They obtain pleasure from discussing with older people, usually teachers.

4. They have the ability to judge and transform information.

5. They have extraordinary desire for intellectual activity.

6. As well as being energetic or overactive, they can also be introverted individuals who prefer their own company.

7. They absorb even the tiniest detail in subjects in which they have an interest.

8. They study only to satisfy their overwhelming desire to learn, and not to please their families or teachers.

9. They are curious, continually asking why and how and other similar questions.

10. They have very good memories.

11. They easily figure out complex objects and events.

Gifted individuals may have many more qualities than those listed above. Another aspect to consider is that if a child has one or a few of these qualities we should not come to the conclusion right away that he is a gifted child. A child could be talented in one certain topic. An individual who shows outstanding performance in mathematics could be completely unsuccessful in social studies and even worse in art, and a student who is successful in art may be very poor at physics. The understanding that an intelligent student must be successful in every field of education is misleading because this is not the case with all individuals. Further, methods of discovering a student’s ability in one field may not be suitable for other subjects.

Types of education for gifted students

In different countries of the world there are various kinds of education for gifted students. These can be categorized as separate education, combined education, and individual education.

1. Separate education: Separate education is grouping students to be educated according to the subjects in which they show higher performance. This kind of education is usually regarded as unsuitable in present-day understandings of schooling on the grounds that if not well balanced separate education may encourage selfishness, a sense of arrogance and unsound personality.

2. Combined education: This is a form of education where talented individuals continue studies in their usual environment among their friends in the five different formats noted below:

a) Education in special classes: Students known to have a higher rate of ability are taught in special classes in their own schools.

b) Early education: This is enrolling gifted children in schools earlier than the normal school age, usually a year earlier but in some cases maybe even two years, depending on a child’s general intellectual performance. This format is not advised because early education is said to have negative effects on the physical, emotional and psychological development of children.

c) Accelerated education: This is where children known to have outstanding intelligence are advanced to a higher class. This can be implemented two times at the most.

d) Groups of equal ability: This is a form of education where students with the same abilities in certain subjects are taught in specific, segregated classes and then encouraged to develop their skills in their topic of interest.

e) Enriched schedule: This is where a skilled individual is provided with special activities in his or her own classroom alongside the normal curriculum.

3. Individual education: A student with outstanding abilities is provided with a specific education in their own field of interest.

Recommended types of education

If we look at the various kinds of education, the most appropriate forms of learning seem to be groups of equal ability and the enriched schedule because separating children from their usual environment and friends can induce various problems.

Education of groups with equal ability

This is a method where students of equal ability are taught in one class. The ideal number of students per class is three, and a teacher is usually assigned to the class as a counselor.

After lessons the students research the topics relevant to their interests or abilities. This research begins with easier tasks, and while they are investigating the topic the students are actually learning and practicing different methods of learning. They learn in sequence how to research a topic and what to do when they are faced with a problem. The students learn study and learning methods without realizing that they are actually learning. This is a very effective method, and in this kind of education students gain the chance to learn and research, develop and innovate while remaining among their friends in their normal environment. Therefore, they are not subjected to the negative aspects of segregation, and gifted students in higher classes become an example for younger, outstandingly gifted students in lower classes.

Education with an enriched schedule

In the enriched schedule education program, the student continues his or her usual education in his or her own classroom guided by the teacher to perform research in the field in which he or she has greater ability. He or she then explains the research discoveries to classmates. Thus, while students are developing skills in explaining discoveries they are also teaching their friends and representing model students in the classroom. Teachers play a big role in this type of education. It is their duty to recognize the students’ fields of interest or abilities and arrange a program suitable to the students’ characters.

What the education of a gifted student entails

Gifted students should not be told of their superior capabilities because the word “superior” or “outstanding” could lead to arrogance in the student, which will cause problems with classmates. Students who think they are superior will begin to think that studying is unnecessary, which could lead to them abandoning their education completely. Nevertheless, their education can be customized according to their greater abilities.

Gifted students are individuals who need special education and trained, professional teachers, just like a student with hearing problems, a blind student or a student with a learning impairment.

Conclusion

The main differences between a student of normal learning capacity and one of outstanding abilities are that a gifted student can achieve what others think impossible. A ship being commanded from land, the discovery of electricity, the invention of motor vehicles, priceless classic paintings, music, literature and works of art are all the products of extraordinarily skilled people.

Outstanding talent is a gift from God, a great blessing. One who has a gift and the people responsible for discovering it and ensuring it develops, namely the mother, father, and teacher, must recognize it in the early stages and educate these children in a beneficial manner so that they will be able to do work which is of interest to them, work that ordinary people would not be able to do. In this way, they will be able to benefit others as well as themselves.

They must also develop in their character and spirituality. If a talented person does not have a good character, he or she could become more dangerous than a person of normal intelligence. Great responsibility lies with teachers and the education authorities.

Such sceneries are very common now in many houses and internet cafes. Children and youth are spending most of their times playing computer games. While parents favor computers as necessities of modern age and as assistants for their children’s homework, children mostly consider them as toy boxes. They initially start with innocent intentions, but in time they lose their original purpose. “Uncontrolled use of computers,” the common problem of many parents, is also a matter very difficult to solve for the experts.

How do computer games affect the children’s subconscious and their future lives? Do games with positive effects have an appealing presentation?

Computer games can be grouped under two categories. First are the games that help developing talents, understanding the life experiments and ethical values by using an entertaining method; Second are the games that do not contribute anything to the child’s imagination and thinking abilities and inciting violent and immoral behavior. For the game to positively affect the child’s intellectual, physical and spiritual development depends upon both the content and the duration of the game. This period of playing time should neither be too short, nor too long. To be able to obtain a proper balance in this matter, we should first equip the child with an education of using the time wisely. Children wasting their time for useless activities, can also be insensitive to effective use of time when they grow up. Concisely, children must acquire the consciousness of valuing time. Wasted time in front of computers cause children and youth to get passive. This increases the stress experienced by the children. Especially in active boys, this inactiveness causes an energy accumulation which negatively affects the child’s behaviors. The use of excessive energy by ways of different sports is very useful for the physical and mental development and raising of a social conscious. Moreover, spending time in front of computers, deprives children and youth from cultural activities like playing group games, studying together and engaging with a sports activity.

Many of us complain that our children cannot express themselves properly and are not clear at communicating with their environment. When we ask a question to our child, either we get a very brief or a routine answer. Times elapsed aimlessly in front of computers have a significant effect on this.

We see that violence increase in each level of any new computer game. The game producers consider every type of method as permissible just to be able to attract children to the screen. Scenes which are not suitable for the age form the subconscious of a child. Children who have been exposed to several violent scenes are mostly inclined to aggression, anxiety and panic and they are generally furious and quick-tempered and consider violence as an ordinary matter. Reactions of children who watch violent films and play fierce and crimson computer games change in time and start applying more and more force to people and children around them. They tend to hit and kick others even after a slight disagreement. Being affected from destructive violent scenes, children reveal problems like over anxiety, sleep disturbances and behavioral disorders. Since the causes and effects of behaviors affected by the five senses are not questioned so much in pre-school children, abnormalities mentioned earlier can be seen more on them. We can give these as example: “A three year old child who watched violent films, applied what he watched on TV and stabbed and killed his little brother with a knife. Another child who thought himself to be a pokemon (a cartoon character), threw himself from the seventh floor with the intention of flying. And another child in France who could not win any computer games became epileptic because of having too frequent and excessive anger fits due to the unsuccessful playing sessions.” Unfortunately we often hear such news. In order to illuminate the subconscious of our children with beauties, favors, affection, and altruism, we should offer them alternative useful and educational games.

Harmful games also prevent children to learn their own culture, thus cause a cultural corrosion. Such games take our children to a world of weird clothes and hairstyles, weapons being the accessories. In this virtual world, no values exist except for “might is right.” Furthermore, in most of these games Islam is shown as a boogeyman and Muslims are shown as terrorists deserved to be killed. Children who are seized by the computer games become alienated to their environment. Having difficulty to make friends around them, children become enslaved by the computer and isolate themselves from the society. The only friend of the child is the computer, and in spite of elapsing the time, child still feels great loneliness inside. Hence, parents should provide suitable activities for their children and reasonably arrange the time spent for computer games.

Many bad characters shown on computer games also have perverse effects upon the child’s personal development. It is definite that messages given by these games like being strong and unchallengeable, inconsideration of other people’s lives, killing for the sake of living, disdaining ethical values, despising other people’s feelings, disrespecting the person addressed, categorizing the people, negatively affect the child’s personal development. Such games also impose unfavorable impacts upon learning abilities and awareness of the child. Scenes that are rapidly changing on computer screen distract the child greatly, make him confused and disturb his mind. This triggers a difficulty in concentrating when learning. Besides, excessive light changes may cause epileptic fits for some children.

Conclusively, computer games inspire children that the life is only a game and lead children to think too much about the characters in the game and mentally and physically to be with them all the time. Children playing too much computer games, carry the same concepts in the game to their relations with their family and friends, cause the child to confuse between the reality and imagination and eventually, the time spent together decreases and unsocial behaviors settle in the child’s personality.

Surely, we cannot underestimate the beneficial sides of the computer which is a must in modern age. But the ideal is to benefit from the positive services of the computer and to ensure a protection against its harmful usage. The playing time which is essential for the child’s healthy growth, should be distributed fairly between virtual games and real group games. For this, we must prefer games;

• in which they can play an active role,

• that are suggested by specialists and other experts,

• which can provide national awareness and cultural identity,

• which support comprehension and intelligence of the child,

• which contribute to virtues like sharing, team spirit, caring for others, honesty, and diligence,

• which instigate curiosity and make learning fun,

• which include parents into the game,

• which infuse consciousness of performing duties and responsibility,

• which help developing imagination, thinking ability, exploring and inventing capability.

If eyes, ears and other organs that are bestowed upon us by the All-Compassionate Creator are engaged with only entertaining computer games, then they are being used out of their innate purposes. Therefore, the vital responsibility of parents is to be very careful for guiding their children to use their sight, hearing, feeling, judging faculties in the right direction and to prepare an environment that provides the child a rich learning background and to bloom his mental abilities.

The specific neurobiological processes, brain structures, genes, and other factors involved in human intelligence are still largely unknown. Current research on brain anatomy and physiology suggests that various levels of intelligence may be associated with such things as the number of connections between neurons or the degree of branching in cortical neurons. Important factors may include brain metabolism and how fast nerves conduct signals.

Types of intelligence

Measuring intelligence depends on which of the three intelligences one relies on and uses the most. For example:

Static Intelligence: The accumulated knowledge measured by IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests. Psychologists call it cognitive content. Standard IQ tests have changed very little since their first appearance over 100 years ago, while cognitive psychology’s understanding of how the brain and mind function has made great progress over that same time period.

Fluid Intelligence: How quickly the mind learns and adapts to new problems and conditions. Also known as practical or dynamic intelligence, this important aspect is hardly ever measured.

Brain Intelligence: Also known as BrainQ or cognitive capacity, this is the speed and efficiency at which the brain processes information. In electronics, Q is how efficient and well-tuned the circuit or system is. So BrainQ is how tuned the brain is, which is reflected in mental quickness, memory, and concentration powers. It is fluid and variable, as it is e very sensitive to environmental and lifestyle conditions.

Both static and fluid intelligence depend on BrainQ. Academic, professional, and even personal success depends mostly on BrainQ. In fact, studies have shown very little correlation between one’s IQ score and monetary success. Most importantly, BrainQ (also known as brainpower) is highly trainable (improvable) with the appropriate type of exercise.

Emotional Intelligence (E-IQ) and BrainQ are correlated. According to Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey, emotional intelligence is composed of being able to identify, perceive, express, and understand emotions in different contexts; emotional understanding; and emotional management.

Measuring intelligence

Abundant research proves that thinking about and testing for human intelligence is no small matter. Yet, Robert J. Sternberg, professor of psychology at Yale University, says that, in many ways, we have it all wrong: There are major problems with conventional thinking about intelligence at best, our notions are incomplete, and at worst, simply wrong.

The dominant psychometric approach to studying intelligence claims to measure intelligence through IQ tests. One’s IQ is the result of dividing a person’s mental age by his/her actual age. This procedure has been dropped, but IQ is still used to refer to the scores obtained on intelligence tests and to the tests themselves. Such scores are normally scaled so that the mean is 100 and standard deviation is 15. Ninety-five percent of the population scores within two standard deviations around the mean (between 70-130).

Many IQ tests exist to measure verbal, spatial, mathematical, and analytical skills, while others depend on reaction or recognition time to a visual stimulus. Several IQ tests combine multiple subtests, each testing a specific skill. Regardless of the test’s nature, many researchers believe that factor analysis can extract a general statistical factor (g) from thes results of to obtain a general measurement of intelligence. There is evidence suggesting that g correlates with academic success and, to some extent, with measuring non-school accomplishments.

Despite its wide acceptance, not all researchers agree with the concept of a general, measurable intelligence factor. Some experts believe that g measures some types of intelligence (e.g., analytical problem solving) but not others (e.g., creativity and practical intelligence). Other theorists have abandoned the idea of accurately measuring intelligence, saying that there are multiple kinds of intelligence that cannot be measured with pen-and-paper tests.

Sternberg has proposed a new definition of intelligence that includes analytical skills (the ability to analyze and judge, compare and contrast) and creative and practical abilities. He adds the second and third factors to make the definition of intelligence more meaningful, although he acknowledges that analytical intelligence is an important component of intelligence. Creative intelligence is measured by problems assessing how well an individual copes with relative novelty and can create or invent new products, while practical intelligence measures the ability to handle daily problems.

Increasing IQ?

Some studies have shown that young children exposed to stimulation-rich environments in kindergarten had higher IQ scores than their non-exposed classmates. However, such increases were mostly gone upon graduating from elementary school. Despite this temporary improvement, evidence suggests that the exposed children tended to perform better in school, were less likely to need special education, and were more likely to finish school. Thus, some cognitive functions as well as one’s quality of life were enhanced.

The results of such test suggest that stimulation is a key factor in increasing cognitive performance. Could this positive effect be prolonged by continued exposure to enriched environments? Recent studies in neuroscience show that neuronal synapses in a highly stimulated environment tend to grow and expand, at least in the visual system, compared to those that receive only background static (white noise) input. Also, synapses tend to grow stronger with regular stimulation, which suggests that cognitive function may be improved by a variety-rich environment, stimulation, and activity.

Another suggestive study is the Mozart effect. Researchers picked his Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for its complexity, and showed that college students who listened to it before taking a spatial-temporal reasoning test performed better than control subjects. However, the effect only lasted 15 minutes and seems to be specific to the piece of music and to experimental conditions.

Although these results are limited to specific circumstances, they still have promise. The results are temporary, but one can make an analogy between these effects and those of physical exercise, which are also usually temporary. The key in maintaining and potentially improving cognitive function may be the forms of mental exercise. Solving puzzles, reading, learning new language or a musical instrument may have positive effects. Again, the important point may be in optimizing overall cognitive function rather than in increasing measured IQ scores, which research shows to be relatively stable after childhood.

Physical exercise clearly provides optimal results when combined with a proper diet. The same is likely to hold for mental exercises. Severe malnutrition while a child can have negative effects on intelligence, and the brain requires nutrients to function properly on a daily basis. Also, physical exercise seems to have a positive effect on mental performance. For example, aerobic exercise appears to increase memory retention, improve some types of creative problem solving, and has positive effects on general well-being. Also, exercise can help relieve stress, which has a negative impact on learning and memory. Various relaxation techniques are also beneficial.

Overall, it does not seem likely that measured IQ can be increased permanently. But other supporting factors of cognitive function might be enhanced, thereby optimizing overall mental performance. The best ways to do this seem to be combining physical and mental activities to create a stimulating environment, and to get enough nourishment.

Sternberg’s theory of intelligence

Sternberg has made some interesting points that have been borne out by research results. For example, he has demonstrated that people can handle cognitive challenges in real-life situations. For example, housewives and Brazilian street children have difficulty calculating in a classroom, but not in a supermarket or while making a deal on the street, respectively.

Another consideration is the importance of family expectations on children’s learning. For example, Kenyan families typically do not value formal Western, but do value knowledge of the indigenous environment. He found that when Kenyan children were tested on their knowledge of the indigenous environment, those who scored high on the indigenous tests scored low on conventional IQ tests.

Sternberg also has shown, in a study of Yale students, that students in the high-analytical group were much less diverse in terms of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds than those in the high-creative and high-practical groups.

Sternberg’s research has critical impacts on teaching. He asserts: First of all, it is important to note that all three abilities analytical, creative, and practical can be taught. When students are taught in a way that best fits how they think, they do better in school. Children with high levels of creative and practical abilities, who are almost never taught or assessed in a way that matches their pattern of abilities, may be at a disadvantage in course after course, year after year.

Abusing IQ test scores

However, Sternberg is aware that resistance to change in measuring intelligence is great and widespread. He adds: The U.S. has developed a multi-million dollar testing industry whose tests are based on conventional notions of intelligence. The modern version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence tests or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales have not evolved much over the years. Whereas old computers and old VCRs and old telephones rapidly go out of date, old tests never seem to die, except for updating of norms and cosmetic changes.

Sternberg is confident that conventional notions of intelligence can be surpassed, despite the reluctance and opposition to change, and that doing so will benefit everyone. He concludes: In fact, the most important abilities for science are creative abilities, and if we continue to measure students with conventional tests and do not value creative abilities in training, the result may be that we are picking the wrong people. People who are highly creative may be denied the opportunity to go into science, and science may lose its best potential to advance.

The current misuse of IQ or similar tests is not as problematic as the ones in past. Murray and Herrnstein’s controversial The Bell Curve summarizes research allegedly purporting that blacks are innately less intelligent than whites. This conclusion depends on culturally biased IQ tests or content-oriented SAT tests. However, these conclusions neglect the social limitations, unequal conditions, underprivileged situations, low-quality education, malnutrition, and poverty. The famous Milwaukee Project of the 1970s showed that nurturing plays a vital role in a child’s intelligence. And Goddard’s results, obtained in the early 1900s and based tests given to newly arriving immigrants who had spent months on a boat, who were mainly laypeople, and often had little if any grasp of English, has been disproven by those very people and their descendants, many of whom went on to build quite successful careers in America.

IQ tests are culturally biased. However as Reynolds points out: The argument is whether the brain’s processing speed determines how well one can do in an IQ test. The IQ tests and SATs are very content-oriented. If you weren’t taught some important element, you’d be at a disadvantage (Report From Biomedical). Rather than this, an IQ test should check how quickly one’s brain can process information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, intelligence depends on many things: daily diet, physical and mental exercise, emotional state, stress, and so on. It is not fixed or static, so one can improve it by a combination of techniques that suit the individual. In spite of the developments in cognitive science and medicine, measuring intelligence is still in its crawling stage and open for research. One can be filled only with awe before such a vital yet mostly unknown organ, whose functions have tantalized humanity for centuries. Thus, each person should appreciate having such a distinguishing feature and thank the Creator.

References

• Herrnstein, Richard J. and Charles Murray. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. Free Press: 1996.
• Mayer, J. D., D. Caruso, and P. Salovey. Selecting a Measure of Emotional Intelligence: The Case for Ability Scales. (Second submission version), 11 January 2000. Chapter in: R. Bar-On and J. D. A. Parker (eds.), The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. Jossey Bass: 2000.
• NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences, NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Seminar Series, 1999.

Time continues its relentless movement forward at an ever-faster pace. Despite of all the technological advancements and other labor-saving devices that are aimed at making our lives simpler and carefree, we still feel the burden of keeping up-to-date with developments and becoming more productive by using our time wisely. As every day brings more information, it becomes difficult to determine what should have priority and what can be postponed or ignored.

The Fountain seeks to help you with this hard task. Although it is not possible to freeze time, we can lessen its impact by providing you with information designed to help you expand your worldview, to re-interpret spiritual and scientific information so that it becomes personal knowledge. We believe that this knowledge will awaken a desire in your mind and heart, which will transform it into wisdom.

In this issue, we present an article on the relation between healing and faith. At the end of the millennium, many scientists began to move away from the traditional mechanical methods of the universe. Ordinary Americans and people across the world are increasingly exhibiting a strong interest in alternative medicines, such as acupuncture, meditation, herbal foods supplements and drinks, and a wish to find some way around chemical-based medicines that cure only one problem only by causing a host of unwelcomed side-effects. The health industry has been conducting research of their own to see if their proponents’ claims have any basis in truth. Also, scientists are more willing to study possible relationships between mind and matter, breaking a long-standing taboo. Psychologists have conducted experiments and research to see if a person’s faith and outlook on life can influence his or her recovery. We consider this a positive trend, for each individual has both spiritual and physical dimensions. Focusing on just one dimension to the total exclusion of the other cannot cure the individual completely. This new holistic approach to solving people’s problems and illnesses should open an entire new branch for medicine.

Another article focuses on humanity’s progress to happiness and decline to misery. Human beings have a special rank in the universe, for they are the only members of creations who can change the face of the world. Using their God-given comprehensive abilities to drive themselves forward, only human beings can change themselves by submitting themselves to God and living as He wants us to live. Thousands of civilizations, both past and present, show us how these abilities can be seeds for peace, understanding, and positive progress, as well as seeds for destruction and desolation. This article sheds light on these issues from a spiritual perspective.

As readers of The Fountain, your expectations are very important to us. Publishing The Fountain is an interactive process-you contribute articles, comments, and support, and we spread your views to a much larger audience than they would otherwise reach. Such an interactive relationship has mutual benefits, and has potential far-reaching results. Any act that has wide support and appeal result in cultural variation and richness, and broadens people’s thoughts, ideas, and intellect. The Fountain is dedicated to playing such a role, and seeks your continued support in this worthwhile effort. Therefore, rest assured that your feedback and articles will find a receptive audience among our staff members.

The Fountain staff is eagerly looking forward to receiving your submissions for our writing competition! We hope that our young scholars will also grab this opportunity to share their knowledge, experience, and outlook on life with people who seek to understand and make sense of the events happening around them, and the ideas and beliefs that give rise to them. Your participation will help us provide answers to those who have these questions.

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Besides searching for new techniques to substitute man in the fields of labour, modern scientific inquiry is also directed to finding analogues for human mental activities. Since their assumption is that man is merely a physical-material entity (a complex of physical, biological and chemical processes) many scientists are hopeful that they can produce a complete copy of human functions. It is their assertion that since at least nothing in existing physical theories accounts for the existence of non-computable processes in the brain, all of man’s intellectual activities can be computed. However, Roger Penrose, the famous Oxford mathematician, argues against this assertion. He argues from Godel’s theorem which states that for every consistent formal system that has the power to do arithmetic, there will always be a true statement. That is, a formal system is a set of logical or computational rules; termed consistent if it never produces contradictory statements. Yet, as human beings can see that that statement is true, this constitutes a sign that our minds can go beyond the powers of any formal system. However, since Penrose himself (like many others who share his opinions) cannot free himself from the confines of (materialistic) physics and nothing in existing physical theories accounts for non-computable processes, in order to be able to find a physical foundation for his theory, he pins his hopes on future elaborations of the theory of quantum mechanics. In his attempt to explain human consciousness, Penrose notes that the biggest mystery of all is how electrical activity in the brain gives rise to the experience of consciousness. It is hard to understand why an inner life should arise from the mere enactment of a computation, no matter how complex. However, his alternative is not more convincing that what he rejects. He tries to explain human consciousness with quantum processes in microtubules – collapsing quantum wave functions (the mathematical functions describing the position and momentum of a particle) in protein structures found in the skeletons of neurons.

The main problem arises from accepting the physical body as the origin of all activities of mans intellect. The problem is also true for the expectations from Artificial Intelligence. Dr Aksoy has a simple but meaningful objection to the assumptions underlying those expectations: ‘A man-made system can be very smart and artificially very intelligent but no such system so far has been awarded a prize for its innovative abilities. It is the human being who made it who wins the prize. What is prized, what is of higher worth, is not the system but its maker or builder.’ Another more simple objection can be raised here. For example, after doing a spell-check on a word-processor. you may come across many mistakes which the software has not recognized. Any sentence can be written in several ways in which the words are correctly spelt but are not the words you intend to use. For example, if we type the sentence ‘What is prized is not the system but its maker or builder’ as ‘What is priced is not the system but its make or build’, most people who know the language will recognize it immediately and effortlessly as nonsense. But the software’s spell-check and grammar-check will pass the sentence as OK. Such examples can be multiplied for a great variety of tasks requiring experience and understanding which cannot be analogued or translated for Al machines but which humans cope with quite easily.

According to what we are asked to believe, the brain continually self-organizes, learns and adapts throughout our lives. Understanding how millions of neurons self-organize through non-linear feedback interactions requires that we have a full grasp of the mathematics of neural networks and of how this mathematics helps us to understand the link between brain and behaviour point to mention concerning man’s intellectual activities relates to the issue of learning and education.

Materialistic approaches attribute all of man’s intellectual activities to his brain. According to the theory of evolution, if taken literally, more developed animals must also be more developed in using their senses and faculties or their brains. But this is not the case. As Dr Yilmaz points out (‘Perfection and Primitiveness, The Fountain, Vol. 2, No. 19, p. 34), compared with a shark which can smell a drop of blood in the sea from a distance of about 25,000 feet, man is very much less developed. If we judge the degree of development according to the sense of smell, in place of men or monkeys, sharks will be at the top of the chain. Whereas, with respect to the sense of seeing, eagles are much more developed than sharks, as well as more than men and monkeys: an eagle can spot a rabbit on the ground from a height of about 6,000 feet. Would it not be true for a honey-bee to say of us: Those clumsy ones can draw with tools and only after calculations the hexagons that I can make so easily and exactly identical to one another. They cannot make so sweet and healing a substance as honey that 1 produce. Again, according to the literal logic of the theory of evolution, must a more developed animal not inherit the abilities of one less developed than itself? In this case, must man not have the abilities of all animals and must apes not have the abilities of all other animals ‘lower’ on the evolutionary ladder than themselves? Also, if man was evolved from apes, should the first man evolved not have inherited all the abilities and knowledge of all apes? However, we see that while all other animals are born as if educated and instructed already in all the information they will need to survive, man is born knowing next to nothing of what he needs to know to survive. And while all other animals come to the world with the same information or knowledge their predecessors had and there is negligible (if indeed any) difference between the amount of knowledge and abilities that the members of a species have, a man’s knowledge cannot be inherited by his progeny. Consequently, human beings vary hugely in their intellectual and artistic capacities and the amount or level of their knowledge.

Materialistic and evolutionist psychology consider learning either as a matter of behavioural patterning by reinforcement or the storage and use of knowledge. The first view is called behaviourism, while the latter cognitivisim. However, both are agreed that it is the brain or neural systems which learn. That is, the intellectual dimension of man’s being consists in his brain. They confuse how a man learns with what it is that does the learning. What they want us to believe with respect to man’s intellectual faculties is not different from defining how a factory works. According to their logic, it is the factory itself which built itself and works according to the laws pre-determined by either itself or the collective being of factories. Although they use personal pronouns such as ‘I’ or ‘You’ or We’ in referring to those who learn, speak, think, reason, decide and so on, forgetting that the brain does not know itself or what it is doing and also forgetting that it is we – humans – who study, speak about, comment on and even operate on the brain, they regard it as scientific to attribute all man’s intellectual activities and faculties, and therefore his conscious existence, to the brain, If that is so, why do we not concentrate our efforts merely on the brain and adjust it as a way of adjusting or educating individuals rather than go to the trouble and expense we currently go through to educate and bring our fellow members of society? Again, does attributing man’s intellectual activities to the brain mean that whatever man will need in life and also his desires, expectations, feelings, pains of the past and anxieties of the future, etc. were pre-encoded in his brain and that according to the situations or the stimuli coming from the outer world, the brain brings them forth as responses?

According to what we are asked to believe, the brain continually self-organizes, learns and adapts throughout our lives. Understanding how millions of neurons self-organize through non-linear feedback interactions requires that we have a full grasp of the mathematics of neural networks and of how this mathematics helps us to understand the link between brain and behaviour. Is it not compounding our ignorance to attribute to a heap of blind, deaf, ignorant flesh, blood and neurons unconscious of themselves, of their existence and what they are doing or why, all of man’s intellectual faculties and activities with all their complexity, all of our consciousness and culture, religious life? Does this make sense? And does not doing so entail a denial of man’s free will? Although some psychologists such as Tolman and Kohler are of the opinion that at least in some cases learning appears to be purposeful and animals and people have an awareness of what is being acquired and they actively interpret the stimuli they sense from the environment, since they too attribute this to the brain by asserting that there must be more than one system in the brain involved in learning, the point on which all materialistic approaches are agreed (consciously or unconsciously) is that man is an animal whose acts consist in the automatic responses of his brain, an animal that has no free will to direct and control his life.

The activity of learning is remarkably easy as both behaviourists or cognitivists assert. Yet it is nevertheless extremely complex. Besides senses, many human faculties such as imagination, conceptualization, reasoning, comparing, retaining, remembering, confirming and conviction, have a share in it. Each of these faculties give its colour to what is learnt. For example, only imagination gives rise to falsehoods, while conceptualization is ambiguous as to what passes through it. Reasoning does not have an established view of what comes to it, while capable of confirming partiality or prejudices pleasing to the one doing the reasoning. Surely the materialistic approach has no right to that degree of conviction achieved by impartial reasoning and study of real evidence and which is worthy to be called scientific knowledge. Rather, what materialist and evolutionist psychologists suggest may only be the product of imagination or partial (i.e. biased) reasoning.

Bibliography 

• KOHLER, W. (1925) The Mentality of Apes. Translated by E. Winter, New York.
• CRICK, Francis (1994) The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Charles Scribners Sons. PENROSE, Roger (1994) Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, Oxford University Press.
• PENROSE,Roger(1994)Shadows of the Mind:A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness,Oxford University Press.
• AKSOY, M.S. (1993) ‘Artificial Intelligence: A Different Approach, The Fountain, Oct.-Nov, 1993, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.9-11