Feb 20, 2012
Information, Knowledge and Wisdom
Posted by Michael Howarth in Gospel Living | Comments (0)
Information: The Bullets
You and I swim in a sea of information. Perhaps “drown” would be a better term. Much of this information is interesting and much of it is useless. Thanks to technology, we now have access to pretty much all of it, so…umm...good luck.
Seriously, what do we do with all of this data? I’m sure, like me, you have sat and watched the news only to hear that yet another scientific study has been rebuffed by yet another scientific study. Drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water per-day. Just kidding — drink only when you are thirsty. Coffee is good for you. Coffee is giving you cancer! Married people are the happiest. Married people are miserable. You need to spend time in the sun everyday. The sun is giving you cancer! Pluto is a planet. Sorry Pluto, now you’re just Mickey’s dog and you still can’t talk.
So you and I are left suffocating and paralyzed under a pile of information. Information is like bullets. Knowing which bullets are live and which are blanks is crucial and requires knowledge — knowing how to inspect the bullets. As bullets are without the gun, so information is without knowledge: useless.
Knowledge: The Gun
Knowledge is power. This maxim, attributed commonly to philosopher Francis Bacon, is very popular and often used when promoting the advancement of education. I wouldn’t argue with it, and I believe it to be true. Where it gets fuzzy for me is the whole “power” thing. As another acclaimed philosopher, Spiderman's uncle, once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So, as we go about equipping ourselves with knowledge, and thereby equipping ourselves with great power, how do we ensure that we have the maturity needed to use this power? This type of problem is most clearly seen in debates about things that are very dangerous, like constructing nuclear weapons or having children. We know we can do it, but should we?
As a loaded gun wielded by a child, or a credit card by a teenager, so is knowledge in the hands of a fool: dangerous.
Wisdom: The Steady Hand
People who are older than you are smarter than you. This is not an absolute truth, but I beg you (and myself) to treat it like it is. I really doubt we’ll go wrong. This is because older people have experienced the malaise and momentary, passing nature of useless information — they have an instinct for it and will usually use a certain colorful expression to call it out. They have also lived long enough to experience (both as victims and perpetrators) knowledge used poorly. They've felt the pain of its power gone bad and seen the flourishing that can come when it is used well.
Ultimately, the oldest person you and I need to trust is God himself. This is the One who created intelligence. This is the One who built the workings of our brains. His hands are the ones that shaped the building blocks of what we call “information.” He knows all of it. He has knowledge that we can’t even grasp the edges of. We can trust Him absolutely.
True wisdom is not simply an abundance of information. It is not just deploying the power of knowledge. Wisdom involves incisive discernment of that information and proper, judicious application of that knowledge. It is the judgment between what is useful vs. what is useless, what is permitted vs. what is beneficial, what can be done vs. what should be done.
Wisdom is grounded in love and will never be moved. It is patient, discerning, calm, and unimpressed with us and our shiny gadgetry.
As the gifted artist is to the paintbrush, or the seasoned chef is to fresh ingredients, so is wisdom to the heart of a man or woman swimming in a sea of information and knowledge: priceless.
Wisdom can be hard to explain. The Bible generously tells us where to begin, as if indicating that we should travel to the source of the river to find out where the water is from. That sounds likes a worthwhile journey...
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
- Proverbs 9:10
Posted by Michael Howarth in Gospel Living
