Do we really need to know how God works? Or even how nature works? How centipedes use all their legs, or how many times a humming bird flaps its wings in a second? Of course some of these things are fun to know, and probably do no harm to know. Knowing certain things can help us live too. Think of the indigenous people of the world. Think of what they learned, and knew, about nature, the seasons, the plants and animals. What they knew was enough. Anything more can be a problem. Knowing for example how nuclear fission works, can be a problem.
“The knowledge of Good and Evil, no matter how systematically or thoroughly consumed, will by no means make us gods. Rather, modern ethics, modern psychotherapy, and modern political ideologies all tend to produce not superhumans but pitiable slaves to the rationalizations generated by our distorted human desires. In order to gain control over the world, we have been too willing to renounce essential aspects of our own freedom.”
Todd, there’s a significant amount of information scattered across innumerable sources as i’m sure you are aware. I’ve found the attached link to be a useful and logically arranged analysis. My opinion is that all of these belief systems- a.k.a. "religions’ have as their fundamental basis the concept of works, which is a kind of god. If you do thus and so you can gain insight, approbation and heavenly rewards. Many- again my opinion- are elite in nature, i.e. for the initiated. The concept of the ‘elect’ in Calvanism comes to mind here. I don’t consider Biblical Christianity to be a religion, as religions have at their core man seeking after God, unfortunately usually finding him in their own image. Biblical Christianity is God reaching down to man in the person of Jesus to form a permanent, individual spiritual relationship (salvation). As Jesus told Nicodemus "You must be born again" (by the spirit of God). Works are useless in achieving salvation; otherwise all wealthy people would easily get to heaven. But with true repenting of sin, confession to God, and a request for mercy God instantly responds to the sinner who then becomes a ‘new man in Christ.’ This is an eternal transaction. Salvation once attained is never lost.
The disadvantage of knowledge is that it can, and will be, weaponised whereas insight, arising from the higher forms of consciousness and the self-discipline of morality, is far more difficult to exploit and abuse.
Considering our bloody, experimental and sometimes exploitative past and our present gold rush to the horrors of transhumanism, I wonder if we would have done better keeping to the limitations of our medieval ancestors and their monastic tradition of healing with simple food, herbs, bedrest and prayers.
My dad used to say that knowledge is the accumulation of facts, and wisdom is the correct application of that knowledge. He dropped out of school in the 8th grade to work and finished school when he was released from the Army after WW2 ended. Never stopped learning. Read books with a dictionary next to him. NEVER thought he knew it all. We need more of that kind of humility
I don't think the problem is in the knowledge, in the discoveries and inventions. The problem resides in what we chose to do with that knowledge. The tree in the garden of Eden was forbidden because God understood that man would be tempted to decide for himself what was good and what was evil, and the consequences would be dire for us.
Motivated by our fallen nature, pride and the hunger for power would result in division and violence on God's most favored creation, the human beings made in his own image. Free will should be understood by us all as not the freedom to do as we wish with claims of happiness, but as the freedom to choose correctly, sacrificially and in love for each other, always following God's standards rather than our own selfish ones. This is how to judge everyone and everything around us, what is the intention and the motivation?
Sometimes too much knowledge isn't the problem. It's having just enough knowledge to think we know things we don't. Another thing, most people have an unfortunate discomfort with uncertainty, and fall for con artists who pretend to have answers. Lack of knowledge, and pretending or actually thinking one has knowledge when he doesn't have a clue, can be as bad as seeking too much. Different topic maybe but seems related.
Wisdom is much more important than knowledge. We've elevated knowledgeable "experts" above the wise devout. And are dearly paying for it.
You are sharing wisdom in your post. It is wise to heed God's designs for us using the tools God has provided us including learning with our brains...and our hearts. Knowing that our souls are eternally at his mercy. Wisdom is applying all three at the same time.
Sometimes there really is a Pandora's Box and I think The Medical profession has blown the lid off.
The profit is in the problem instead of the prevention so they lie about the cure or prevention in order to boost the profit.
I had an argument with my wife in 76 because I wouldn't take the swine flu shot. She did and got sick and my liberal female cousin did and ended up in the ER then the ICU.
This time around my wife and I both said hell no to any jab. My brother in law said we were stupid and took his jab cause everything he learns is on MSM TV.
Now the poor guy has Prostate Cancer. My other brother in law took the jab against my advice and now has a continuous chronic cough.
The jab is another Pandora's Box the human haters invented for lookie loozers to peek in and die.
My free medicantical advice is don't open the hood and tinker with the engine unless there is a problem. God didn't build junk!
An interesting post today. Thank you. And possibly more relevant than we might think. What you have noted reminds me of the major heresy of the first two centuries of Christianity: Gnosticism. The Greek word 'gnostic/ gnosis' effectively means "one who knows". This heresy maintains that man can save himself through knowledge of the human divine spark (what ever that really means), and that God is not required for salvation. To paraphrase the OT, possibly what we are seeing today are people who literally have no God, but simply do that which feels 'right' to them to seek their own godliness. Much depends on motive. (To seek knowledge of the physical world to enable goodness is a noble thing.) Another verse comes to mind from II Tim: "Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of THE truth." (Jesus said "I am the way, the life, and THE truth. No man comes to the father but by me.") All of this, of course, goes back to Genesis where we have Satan telling Eve that by disobeying God she will become "a god". He's saying the same thing to folks today. God, however, is of a different opinion: "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else." Some things never change....
I had never heard of Jean Henri Fabre, so thank you for that. Entomology must be a declining profession these days since there are so few insects. Possibly due to chemtrails and geoengineering, or maybe just because some people hate God and His creation.
You make an important point, Todd, and I agree. I will not make any comments about God or Theology or the Garden of Eden. I will say something about your comments on medicine. Although I fundamentally agree with you, I believe that what is fundamentally wrong with today's medicine is not really that "we know too much". The problem is what has become to be the "accepted" way of applying what we know, and some of the accepted premises that guide the current practice of medicine. Someone decided that it is "good" to check your cholesterol levels every year, and if they are higher than some ridiculous level, then you need to take statins for the rest of your life, because it is "good" to have your LDL level below some number, even if the statins give you muscle pains and bust your liver. There are countless examples like that... I could go on talking about the "health industry", pharma... but you get the idea.
Do We Really Need to Know This?
“The knowledge of Good and Evil, no matter how systematically or thoroughly consumed, will by no means make us gods. Rather, modern ethics, modern psychotherapy, and modern political ideologies all tend to produce not superhumans but pitiable slaves to the rationalizations generated by our distorted human desires. In order to gain control over the world, we have been too willing to renounce essential aspects of our own freedom.”
― Timothy G. Patitsas, The Ethics of Beauty
Todd, there’s a significant amount of information scattered across innumerable sources as i’m sure you are aware. I’ve found the attached link to be a useful and logically arranged analysis. My opinion is that all of these belief systems- a.k.a. "religions’ have as their fundamental basis the concept of works, which is a kind of god. If you do thus and so you can gain insight, approbation and heavenly rewards. Many- again my opinion- are elite in nature, i.e. for the initiated. The concept of the ‘elect’ in Calvanism comes to mind here. I don’t consider Biblical Christianity to be a religion, as religions have at their core man seeking after God, unfortunately usually finding him in their own image. Biblical Christianity is God reaching down to man in the person of Jesus to form a permanent, individual spiritual relationship (salvation). As Jesus told Nicodemus "You must be born again" (by the spirit of God). Works are useless in achieving salvation; otherwise all wealthy people would easily get to heaven. But with true repenting of sin, confession to God, and a request for mercy God instantly responds to the sinner who then becomes a ‘new man in Christ.’ This is an eternal transaction. Salvation once attained is never lost.
https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/G/gnosticism.html
The disadvantage of knowledge is that it can, and will be, weaponised whereas insight, arising from the higher forms of consciousness and the self-discipline of morality, is far more difficult to exploit and abuse.
Considering our bloody, experimental and sometimes exploitative past and our present gold rush to the horrors of transhumanism, I wonder if we would have done better keeping to the limitations of our medieval ancestors and their monastic tradition of healing with simple food, herbs, bedrest and prayers.
My dad used to say that knowledge is the accumulation of facts, and wisdom is the correct application of that knowledge. He dropped out of school in the 8th grade to work and finished school when he was released from the Army after WW2 ended. Never stopped learning. Read books with a dictionary next to him. NEVER thought he knew it all. We need more of that kind of humility
I don't think the problem is in the knowledge, in the discoveries and inventions. The problem resides in what we chose to do with that knowledge. The tree in the garden of Eden was forbidden because God understood that man would be tempted to decide for himself what was good and what was evil, and the consequences would be dire for us.
Motivated by our fallen nature, pride and the hunger for power would result in division and violence on God's most favored creation, the human beings made in his own image. Free will should be understood by us all as not the freedom to do as we wish with claims of happiness, but as the freedom to choose correctly, sacrificially and in love for each other, always following God's standards rather than our own selfish ones. This is how to judge everyone and everything around us, what is the intention and the motivation?
Sometimes too much knowledge isn't the problem. It's having just enough knowledge to think we know things we don't. Another thing, most people have an unfortunate discomfort with uncertainty, and fall for con artists who pretend to have answers. Lack of knowledge, and pretending or actually thinking one has knowledge when he doesn't have a clue, can be as bad as seeking too much. Different topic maybe but seems related.
Wisdom is much more important than knowledge. We've elevated knowledgeable "experts" above the wise devout. And are dearly paying for it.
You are sharing wisdom in your post. It is wise to heed God's designs for us using the tools God has provided us including learning with our brains...and our hearts. Knowing that our souls are eternally at his mercy. Wisdom is applying all three at the same time.
Sometimes there really is a Pandora's Box and I think The Medical profession has blown the lid off.
The profit is in the problem instead of the prevention so they lie about the cure or prevention in order to boost the profit.
I had an argument with my wife in 76 because I wouldn't take the swine flu shot. She did and got sick and my liberal female cousin did and ended up in the ER then the ICU.
This time around my wife and I both said hell no to any jab. My brother in law said we were stupid and took his jab cause everything he learns is on MSM TV.
Now the poor guy has Prostate Cancer. My other brother in law took the jab against my advice and now has a continuous chronic cough.
The jab is another Pandora's Box the human haters invented for lookie loozers to peek in and die.
My free medicantical advice is don't open the hood and tinker with the engine unless there is a problem. God didn't build junk!
An interesting post today. Thank you. And possibly more relevant than we might think. What you have noted reminds me of the major heresy of the first two centuries of Christianity: Gnosticism. The Greek word 'gnostic/ gnosis' effectively means "one who knows". This heresy maintains that man can save himself through knowledge of the human divine spark (what ever that really means), and that God is not required for salvation. To paraphrase the OT, possibly what we are seeing today are people who literally have no God, but simply do that which feels 'right' to them to seek their own godliness. Much depends on motive. (To seek knowledge of the physical world to enable goodness is a noble thing.) Another verse comes to mind from II Tim: "Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of THE truth." (Jesus said "I am the way, the life, and THE truth. No man comes to the father but by me.") All of this, of course, goes back to Genesis where we have Satan telling Eve that by disobeying God she will become "a god". He's saying the same thing to folks today. God, however, is of a different opinion: "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else." Some things never change....
Fascinating! Thank you.
I had never heard of Jean Henri Fabre, so thank you for that. Entomology must be a declining profession these days since there are so few insects. Possibly due to chemtrails and geoengineering, or maybe just because some people hate God and His creation.
You make an important point, Todd, and I agree. I will not make any comments about God or Theology or the Garden of Eden. I will say something about your comments on medicine. Although I fundamentally agree with you, I believe that what is fundamentally wrong with today's medicine is not really that "we know too much". The problem is what has become to be the "accepted" way of applying what we know, and some of the accepted premises that guide the current practice of medicine. Someone decided that it is "good" to check your cholesterol levels every year, and if they are higher than some ridiculous level, then you need to take statins for the rest of your life, because it is "good" to have your LDL level below some number, even if the statins give you muscle pains and bust your liver. There are countless examples like that... I could go on talking about the "health industry", pharma... but you get the idea.