A man who has been dubbed the “world’s smartest man” has given a pretty definitive answer on whether god exists.
Chris Langan is widely regarded as one of the most intelligent people in the world with an IQ estimated between 190 and 210.
Best known for his Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU), the genius discussed the idea of God in recent interviews, providing insights into his complex worldview.
Langan, whose CTMU theory links reality and consciousness in a structure that explains existence, stated unequivocally that he believes in the existence of God.
Speaking on CTMU Radio, he said: “Yes. Yes, the reality has an identity. The identity is that as which something exists. Matter of fact, when you say the word reality, you’re naming an identity. You’re identifying something.”
Langan elaborated on how his theory supports the idea of a divine presence, explaining that the properties of reality correspond with those traditionally attributed to God.
“That’s what the CTMU says. It just comes up, with a mathematical structure that you need to build a reality out of that,” he said.
Langan continued: “So, you come up with that identity and then you search it for its properties. Once you’ve built the preliminary framework, you start deducing the properties of this identity and you find out that those properties match those of God, as described in most of the world’s major religions.”
Langan’s perspective reframes God not as a personified being but as the identity underlying the interconnected properties of reality.
In a separate appearance on the Theories of Everything podcast with Curt Jaimungal, Langan shared his beliefs about death and what follows.
He described death as the end of one’s relationship with their physical body, but not the end of existence itself.
“That’s the termination of your relationship with your particular physical body that you have at this present time,” he said.
“When you are retracted from this reality, you go back up toward the origin of reality. You can be provided with a substitute body, another kind of terminal body that allows you to keep on existing.”
According to Langan, the essence of consciousness continues beyond physical death, returning to what he calls the “origin of reality.” This, however, does not align with traditional notions of an afterlife.
He likened the post-death state to meditation, explaining: “Now you’re basically meditating, seeing everything change. However, you exist that way right now.
“Arguably, all of your lifetimes, if you were to be reincarnated again and again and again, all of those reincarnations are meta-simultaneous. There is a sense in which they all occur at once in the non-terminal domain.”
