I don't know that people are gaining in intelligence with each passing year. I mean, the Big Brother franchise is still going strong. I guess we could say that people are generally becoming more educated, but there's still the problem of people never really getting over their youthful indoctrination. We're gaining more knowledge, maybe, though not critical thinking skills. Even someone who's relatively unintelligent can be a critical thinker, as can someone who's relatively uneducated.
The problem is, critical thinking is often seen as a direct attack on religious belief... which, to be fair, it kind of is. As near as I can tell, that's what this argument is actually about -- do we follow our critical thinking skills to their natural conclusion and encourage others to do so as well? Are we free to criticize those who dont'? Or is it best to allow ourselves to be a sort of critical elect, patiently enduring the nonsense of our superstitious brethren?

I'm going to write an entry on this -- I'd love a dialogue with you. :)

Not only that, but Mr. Smith got his thees and thous screwed up. It's an obvious case of mimickry.