Since when did the Bible praise Intelligence?

[Dtmccameron]

It’s ma’am.

“On the six day, God created man. On the seventh, man returned the favor.”


I’m not entirely sure scientists, or humanity for that matter, want to “top God”. They’re just looking for medicines, trying to get a better understanding about the world and what surrounds it, and trying to create new technologies for the future generations.

I am one hundred percent sure that scientists have a practice for humility, considering the fact that many theories go downhill.

Sorry, 'bout that, ma’am. And I’d love to agree with you, raised as I was to be a scientist (And I suppose you could say I am, even though I don’t wear a lab coat or have “ist” at the end of my profession), but the way those “experts” thumb their noses at us…Largely for ideas that don’t even belong to them…

And I do think man is out their to make themselves like God. It’s what they’ve been doing since…Well, a little after day seven, anyhow. I think we might have a collective inferiority complex. How else could you explain the tower of Babel, the Roman empire, skyscrapers, oil tankers, Dubai, it goes on and on. Scientists, and their superstitious forefathers, were out to play God from the start, be it divining the future, or creating “life”.

It’s not that science has to be against God. It’s just that the few very damaged individuals that hide behind science because they can’t just LIVE life are very loud, very accepted by society, and on every shelf in the dang Barnes and Noble!

 

[Blade_and_Blood]

Sorry, 'bout that, ma’am. And I’d love to agree with you, raised as I was to be a scientist (And I suppose you could say I am, even though I don’t wear a lab coat or have “ist” at the end of my profession), but the way those “experts” thumb their noses at us…Largely for ideas that don’t even belong to them…

And I do think man is out their to make themselves like God. It’s what they’ve been doing since…Well, a little after day seven, anyhow. I think we might have a collective inferiority complex. How else could you explain the tower of Babel, the Roman empire, skyscrapers, oil tankers, Dubai, it goes on and on. Scientists, and their superstitious forefathers, were out to play God from the start, be it divining the future, or creating “life”.

It’s not that science has to be against God. It’s just that the few very damaged individuals that hide behind science because they can’t just LIVE life are very loud, very accepted by society, and on every shelf in the dang Barnes and Noble!

Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, hey! I love Barnes and Noble! Books are God-awesome! But reading them contribute to intelligence… so does that mean intelligence really is frowned upon? Maybe not in the Bible (although I still think so), but frowned upon by Christians themselves.

 

[statimsciens]

Thankfully, they come hand in hand, but when intelligence is at its peak, things tend to get complicating, making Reason Faith’s worst enemy.

This is not a very accurate description of the relationship between “faith” and “reason,” although I’m not exactly sure what you mean by these terms (reason as in formal logic? The ability to argue? Science? Philosophy? Literature? Intelligence is terribly broad word. ) When has intelligence been “at its peak”?

For instance, the church specifically, and human society generally, has benefitted from the contributions of scholastic theologians (both rational (like Aquinas) and mystical (like Bonaventura), in which case faith and reason peaked at the same time and were hardly enemies.

The inverse might also be true, in which “faith” is the most rational system of thought, for instance in light of post-structural theories that assume “reason” to be just another mask power wears-it is non-belief that embraces a-rational and anti-rational philosophies.

I suspect the histrionics of your statement do not correspond with history.

 

[yellowbicycle]

The Forbidden Tree of Knowlegde of Good and Evil was the tree that gave Adam and Eve the original sin. When you really read that particular story, a hidden message seems to be “Ignorance is bliss.”

I don’t think that’s what that passage is trying to say. When the Bible speaks of ‘knowing’ they mean so in an intimate sense, like how a man knows his wife. I don’t think this passage means knowledge in the general sense. There are peopel much better versed in this than me and thye can probably offe a more insightful analysis.

Is intelligence, critical thinking, or open-mindedness sinful?

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood

If so, I’m in more trouble than I thought.
it is ONLY critically thinking that brought me back to the Catholic faith. And open-mindedness means many things to many people, so that’s a tough one to answer, but I’ll give it a stab. if by open-mindedness, you mean I will respectfully listen to, read and try to understand others, no, in no way is that sinful. If by open-mindedness you mean ‘you don’t know unless you try’, I also don’t think that’s sinful, though it’s not particularly a very good idea (I tried. Now I know. Bad ideas.)

 

[CHRISTINE77]

I truly believe that people can over-think things, over-analyze. Truth actually hits you in the heart, or the guts, not in the mind. Our minds can go over and over things: add information, reject information, reformulate ideas. But when I read what Jesus said in the gospels, I know and feel it is true at a very visceral level. Faith is inexplicable - the mind can’t fathom it. But I do think the heart can.

Likewise, people who play the devil’s advocate, are really arguing against what they know in their heart to be true, but their mind allows them to go there by way of “reason”.