Knowledge: To What End?
To what end do we seek to acquire knowledge?
If we have been raised in and/or live in the modern Western world, we have tended to maintain a more utilitarian posture toward knowledge: if we have thought about the reasons why we have labored to acquire knowledge at all, the answers have most likely involved the quest for some sort of goal. We were compelled to acquire knowledge in school during childhood in order to make a living in a given profession as adults. We often seek to acquire knowledge so we can accomplish something: to build and finish a project, to achieve some feat, etc.
What reasons lie behind our investigations into our environment, past and present? We want to understand what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present so we can better manipulate our environment to achieve our desired outcomes. Such may seem harsh, but ultimately it is the utilitarian conclusion to our endeavors. We learn about past cultures to understand present cultural dynamics, recognizing if the present does not exactly imitate the past, it at least rhymes. We explore the natural world at both the most miniscule and highest levels to understand how things work with the ultimate view of manipulating them to our own comfort. We want to understand how severe weather works to better forecast it and perhaps even manipulate it so as to be less severe; we explore deep space to understand what dangers it might maintain and to advance our study of physics to allow us ever more powerful technological breakthroughs. Why do various stripes of biologists deeply penetrate what profoundly wild places yet remain? To learn about new species with a view of protecting biodiversity, since perhaps in that biodiversity we will eventually discover chemicals and compounds which may prove beneficial to human health. And much of this provides humanity with the benefit of the doubt, for a lot of investigation, research, and technological development is fueled primarily to make money and gain standing.
We have thus inherited a framework in which knowledge is pursued for our benefit and gain and thus prove useful for humanity. We have seen significant critiques of the discipline of the humanities, with many wondering how such a field of study proves useful in the modern world. Its justification proves just as much a testimony to the power of utilitarianism in the modern world: an appeal to how the humanities can produce a more well-rounded citizen and worker whose creativity can provide material benefit to herself, her employer, and her country.
This utilitarian framework is part of the inheritance we have received from the Enlightenment and its transformation of Western society. The general spirit of the Enlightenment, manifest in the conceit of its name, is the spread of the “light of knowledge” to dispel the “darkness of superstition.” Knowledge deduced from observation and reason provides power in the Enlightenment: the power to overcome superstition, the power to manipulate the environment, the power to maintain influence and standing in society.
While Paul predated the Enlightenment by 1750 years, his observation regarding “knowledge makes arrogant” proves apt (1 Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge has made modern man almost insufferably arrogant. He has convinced himself he is vastly superior to his ancestors because he understands things they do not. He is confident he is better able to stand against the forces of nature and evil because of what his scientific and technological advancements provide him. He is willfully blind to how his attempts at mastery have led to significant exploitation and oppression of the creation and its creatures, and such exploitation and oppression do not take place without consequences and judgment. He remains convinced the solutions to his problems can all be discovered through greater scientific and technological advancement and development. Does this sound completely ridiculous to you? Consider the thoughts and behaviors of the titans of Silicon Valley and how convinced they are of their superiority to the rest of us and their confidence in how technology can solve any and every problem.
Such knowledge has made arrogant because it is all directed to the purpose of mastery. Knowledge gained unto mastery is worldly and demonic in its wisdom (cf. James 3:13-18). Things rarely end well when we seek to gain knowledge in order to control, manipulate, or master the object of our knowledge. In relationships between humans, we consider such abusive; we prove more reticent to recognize how abusive such a purpose is when used in regard to the creation, our condition, and how completely delusional it proves in terms of knowledge of God.
For some indeed seek knowledge of God unto mastery. Some of the ancients were convinced they could compel or coerce a god into doing their will if they knew the god’s secret name. To this day many seek knowledge of God or His will, however consciously or unconsciously, with a view to figuring out how to cajole, manipulate, or otherwise exploit God into accomplishing what they want. Plenty of others, perceiving an opportunity for great gain, seek knowledge in the name of religion to manipulate, control, and coerce people into giving them standing, power, money, and other such worldly benefit.
Yet, in truth, the attempt to learn about God or about His creation unto mastery proves delusional before God’s glorious greatness and majesty. Isaiah wisely made known to Israel how God’s ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9); Paul confessed how God’s weakness remains stronger than man’s strength, and God’s foolishness remains wiser than man’s wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. He is the Creator; we are the creation. No matter how much we think we can try, we will never be able to cajole, manipulate, or coerce God into doing anything for us.
We should be able to understand this by considering in what ways our quest to know in order to master flounder. When we are confronted with great tragedy or the evil powers over this present darkness, many are tempted to wonder why this might happen to them, but we all know, deep down, no answer really satisfies. Knowing why a loved one died a horrific death will not bring them back. Understanding the dynamics of a powerful storm will not restore what was devastated. The Preacher wisely understood such questions to be futile, a striving after wind (Ecclesiastes 8:14); when Job pressed such questions before God, he was quickly reminded how he did not understand the ways of the creation. All of our acquired knowledge and technology has not been able to overcome such ancient wisdom.
Knowledge unto mastery does not glorify God. Yet knowledge unto glorifying God can come with great profit.
Consider a romantic relationship: the lover desires to know his or her beloved. We find it abominable for a lover to seek information about the beloved in order to master, control, or manipulate him or her; yet we all have sought, or greatly desire, to know and become known by a lover in order to be more cherished, valued, and honored. Such knowledge is sought by a lover to more greatly honor and glorify the beloved. The Song of Solomon testifies how God finds such good and honorable.
The same ought to be true for our purpose in seeking knowledge about God and His creation. When we seek to master, manipulate, and control on the basis of our knowledge, we presume to be as God and such an impulse for control is the basis of a culture of death and leads to death. Instead we do well to love God and love what God has made as God loves it. When we truly love God, we want to know more about Him, not in order to manipulate or control Him (as if we even could!), but instead to better glorify, honor, and praise Him. When we thus love God, we can look at His creation and learn about it so that we can better see His hand in its operation and glorify, honor, and praise Him.
Note well how the knowledge itself acquired might be quite similar, or even the same; yet the purpose of seeking such knowledge might prove very different, and thus the quest for said knowledge will lead to very different ends. Theology is rightly the queen of all sciences when we pursue it to better honor and glorify God, and all else can rightfully flow from it. We can learn about God’s creation in humility in order to glorify and honor God and be found more effective stewards of the creation by God when He holds us all accountable for how we have used all the gifts He has given us, and to what end.
Knowledge unto mastery is demonic and leads to death; knowledge unto glorifying God in Christ through the Spirit reminds us of our humble station as God’s creation and inspires us to glorify, honor, and praise our Creator. Knowledge of the creation to glorify its Creator provides opportunities to better embody the ways of Jesus, to faithfully serve our fellow man and maintain good stewardship of the creation with which God has entrusted us; knowledge of the creation unto mastery has led to no end of exploitation, oppression, and death. Let us all, therefore, seek knowledge to glorify God in Christ through the Spirit, and not unto mastery, so we might obtain the resurrection of life and be saved!
Ethan R. Longhenry
The post Knowledge: To What End? appeared first on de Verbo vitae.
