punkofnice:
Knowing things doesn't equate to intelligence.
I have said that often, and that's something a lot of people don't understand. I liken the situation to two different computers. One has vast "intelligence" - that is, massive processing power, but it has very little "knowledge" - that is, its database is almost empty. Another has puny processing capability, but lots of "knowledge" - files and files of info.
Also, consider the fascinating case of Kim Peek. His mind was filled with vast, inconceivable amounts of knowledge, but his dad had to help him dress - not because he was physically not capable of dressing, but because he lacked the intelligence to dress himself. A psychologist who was interested in him knew he could easily absorb and remember simple facts (names, dates, etc.), but wanted to know to what extent he could understood more abstract or figurative type language. He asked Kim "What does it mean to get a hold of yourself?" Kim laughed at him as if it was obvious what it meant and then Kim proceeded to literally try to hold himself: he wrapped his arms around himself.
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The term "college education" is virtually meaningless. One's having a college education in no way indicates he's intelligent. I know people with college educations who, and I mean this literally, should not have been let out of the seventh grade. I know college graduates who can't do simple arithmetic; they can't figure out what 1/2 of 1/3 is. They can't reason. They're illogical. They don't know simple grammar; they don't know the difference between adjectives and adverbs or transitive and intransitive verbs. They don't know what a gerund is or what the difference between the objective and nominative cases is. That's all seventh grade (or earlier grade) stuff.
If one has a degree in math or the hard sciences or engineering, then he has to have some kind of good intelligence, but, not necessarily overall, well-rounded intelligence. One summer years ago, I took two semesters of organic chemistry in a period of four weeks. It was all day classes with labs later in the day. We had two different instructors because it would have been too much for one. Both of them knew organic chemistry well, but I found that neither was what I really view as being intelligent. They both had bad grammar and just weren't that smart in an overall way.
I think that one's having a philosophy degree would indicate intelligence. I think that people like Christopher Hitchens are brilliant - much more intelligent than, for example, the two with organic chemistry PhD's who taught me that summer.
Anyway, sorry for the ramble.... it's just something I'm really interested in. My main point is that JWs' saying that reading their mags is like getting a college degree is totally meaningless.