Do we have a 'much superior intellect' to biblical authors?

I am very interested in this. Please explain further. Is it not possible for ideology and reality to coexist? Isn't it necessary for the ideology to be integrated with reality by means of abstract concepts formulated by thought and reason? As for Immanuel Kant, after reading some articles on his philosophy and more importantly his epistemology, I have to say I disagree with him in that reality is unknowable.------------------
A=A

A minority then? I’m a bit confused by this. You see, even college graduates don’t understand everything! Perhaps we need to define ‘ancient’ more clearly; perhaps we should select a period of time to consider. I am reminded of the Septuagint, or LXX, which was created circa 150 BC and circulated among Jews of the Mediterranean Basin. It was an immensely popular Bible among the merchant class, which was comprised primarily of Greek educated men. These guys needed to be able to read and write. It was vital to the conduct of their business.Regarding the scribe class: Scribes were needed at many levels of society; merchants, ship masters, boat builders, land surveyors, accountants, building contractors, newsmen, librarians ( there must be more) all needed to be able to read at some level. Besides its usefulness in day to day business, the ability to read was vital at many levels of operation in government and military communications. This is probably true in the general sense. Although there are a number of fairly high paying occupations today which require only a minimum level of literacy. On the other hand, many jobs in ancient time required literacy of a more basic sort. i.e. How to read dress, speech and coats of arms to identify friend versus foe. Since this discussion started out as a comparison of ancient and modern abilities to think in abstract terms, our definition of literacy needs to include more than simply an ability to decipher the characters of a written language. I must accept this definition, of course, but I think you know what I’m saying. Mastery of arithmetic is not the same as familiarity with mathematics. Even chimpanzee’s have demonstrated ability to understand the concept of fractions. I don’t understand what you are saying here. Do you think ‘the man on the street’ these days understands the square upon the hypotenuse? I see you have done some research. Thank you for sharing. And the base of our number system in geometry and time-keeping, yes? We inherited that from them (via the Greeks, et. al.). I think you have a rather narrow view of ancient education. While it is true that their system was not like our own in terms of volume product (number of graduates) it was, nonetheless geared to providing better jobs and filling all the niches where advanced skills were required: I’m sure there are more.The rise of civilization required the application and promulgation of all the sciences, and perpetuation and enhancement of that knowledge through education of as many people as possible. Education has always been important, whether one is self taught or learns through university. And education has always been expensive; in more ways than one. I see much the same needs today. But you are right in pointing out that the focus has changed.If you agree that the ancient mind was just as capable of abstract thought as the modern one, then I have no quarrel with you. And if you enjoy swapping trivia concerning the ancient geniuses who invented base 60, the concept of zero, public sewage systems, reliable timepieces, and the first codes of law, then I'll having fun. db

I have to ask if you are arguing that ancient peoples learning ability was less than the present population? It seems you understand that degree of education is different than intellectual ability yet somehow disagree with the good doctor? Saying that present people have a superior intellect because soemthing like calculus was discovered late in our history is far off base. It seems akin to comparing the relative weight of ones brain and correlating it with intelligence. It seems to me you do disservice to the intellect of both present and past Homo Sapiens.

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a minority, then?

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Yes, a minority can read a complex scientific or mathematical paper. And most ancient people couldn't read a word. There's no comparison.

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Im a bit confused by this

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Are you familiar with percentiles?

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Perhaps we need to define ancient more clearly

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Indeed. I was picturing a society more like early Israel. The fact is, scribes in early Israel were quite rare. The vast majority of the population had nothing to do with them.Skipping onward, the jobs that you listed were indeed employed in ancient societies - but in very small numbers. The vast majority of ancient Egyptians were farmers on the nile. The next largest were simple low-level soldiers who simply followed orders. There also were large numbers of menial laborers. The type of people who actually had training in things like astronomy, construction, etc, were very small. The smaller ancient societies, such as the early Israeli tribes, would have had an even more skewed ratio.I do agree that ancient societies had just as much capacity for intelligent thought. However, it wasn't generally applied to the sciences, it was typically applied more toward sustinance, at least for the majority of the population. Even still, ancient discoveries (once they had the resources that enabled some people to switch from sustinance farming to both the arts and sciences) really are fasinating. Although, I wouldn't give credit for the first discovery of the concept of zero to the Babylonians, that title probably goes to the Indus river civilization, although it's hard to tell. The Babylonians had a character to represent zero of something, but they didn't use it in mathematics, it typically served more as a placeholder. It was good of you to mention Hammurabi's code, BTW. I love bringing that up to Xians when they try and claim that the 10 commandments and the Bible are the source of all law. It even has what are effectively zoning ordinances! ------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

I suspect this means that they can read at a twelfth grade level. If they could read at a sixteenth grade level, they might be able to skip college, eh? Not really. I recall having understood it once upon a time: long ago; in a galaxy far, far away. Glad to hear it. Sounds a lot like how things are nowadays don't you think? I mean there are science graduates today who work at menial tasks for low wages. The number of positions open in any given field is always smaller than the number of graduates trained to work in that field. At least that is how it plays out today. The rise of urban culture with its arts and sciences is a large part of what defines civilization. So when we consider ancient 'civilizations' we might want to limit ourselves to groups which exhibited those attributes. Neither would I. Indeed. I read something on this somewhere. Perhaps because I am weak on math, I can't remember who was credited with the invention. The Aztecs? Actually, I was thinking of a much earlier one; parts of which are incorporated into his code. How do they respond?db