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Part Three - The Path of Life
Chapter 14 Wisdom
5) Intellectual Knowledge and Spiritual Wisdom
3. The Danger of Highly-Developed Knowledge When Spiritual Wisdom Is Lacking
World Scripture
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Albert Einstein
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. James 3.13-17
Love without wisdom means love without discrimination. Wisdom without humanity means knowledge not translated into action. Therefore, humanity is to love mankind and wisdom is to remove its evil. Tung Chung-Shu (Confucianism)
Science is one thing; wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers. Sir Arthur Eddington
Know verily that knowledge is of two kinds: divine and satanic. The one wells out from the fountain of divine inspiration; the other is but a reflection of vain and obscure thoughts. The source of the former is God Himself; the motive force of the latter the whisperings of selfish desire. The one is guided by the principle: “Fear God; God will teach you”; the other is but a confirmation of the truth: “Knowledge is the most grievous veil between man and his Creator.” The former brings forth the fruit of patience, of longing desire, of true understanding, and love; while the latter can yield naught but arrogance, vainglory, and conceit. Book of Certitude 69 (Baha’i Faith)
As long as men in high places covet knowledge and are without the Way, the world will be in great confusion. How do I know this is so? Knowledge enables men to fashion bows, crossbows, nets, stringed arrows, and like contraptions, but when this happens the birds flee in confusion to the sky. Knowledge enables men to fashion fishhooks, lures, seines, dragnets, trawls, and weirs, but when this happens the fish flee in confusion to the depths of the water. Knowledge enables men to fashion pitfalls, snares, cages, traps, and gins, but when this happens the beasts flee in confusion to the swamps. And the flood of rhetoric that enables men to invent wily schemes and poisonous slanders, the glib gabble of “hard” and “white,” the foul fustian of “same” and “different,” bewilder the understanding of common men. So the world is dulled and darkened by great confusion. The blame lies in the coveting of knowledge.
In the world everyone knows enough to pursue what he does not know, but no one knows enough to pursue what he already knows. Everyone knows enough to condemn what he takes to be no good, but no one knows enough to condemn what he has already taken to be good. This is how the great confusion comes about, blotting out the brightness of sun and moon above, searing the vigor of hills and streams below, overturning the round of the four seasons in between. There is no insect that creeps and crawls, no creature that flutters and flies, that has not lost its inborn nature. So great is the confusion of the world that comes from coveting knowledge! Chuang Tzu 10 (Taoism)
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift towards unparalleled catastrophes. Albert Einstein
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
We should admit that the various sciences and philosophies today have failed in solving the world’s problems. The grand promise of natural science has too often been used for evil purposes instead of for the true happiness of humanity. The social sciences have been corrupted due to the influence of partisan political interests and thus have played a dysfunctional role on many occasions. Philosophy has become a lifeless study, having given up the great pursuit of the ultimate ideals of human beings. This trend is becoming more serious because of the passive attitude of many scholars. I think that scholars should not be satisfied only with carrying on their own research. They should respond to the call of the world, which is in need of active guidance. The world demands responsible action by scholars who enlist their capabilities for the good of mankind in accordance with a right value perspective. (170:268-70, November 27, 1987)
Human beings are creations of God, created to lead life with a definite value perspective in accordance with the purpose of creation. Yet people have disregarded this value perspective and taken science as a panacea, believing it to be omnipotent. Consequently, technology has become a source of increasing damage.
In human life, science can only be a means; it cannot be an end. The purpose of human life is to realize God’s purpose of creation. A human being is a unified being of both physical and spiritual entities. Hence, on the foundation of physical life, he is to lead a life of value—a life of love, truth, goodness and beauty. Technology is needed only for the convenience of physical life, which will allow physical life to become a proper basis for spiritual life. Therefore science that disregards or fails to emphasize the life of value actually brings about the destruction of humanity’s value perspective, leading to today’s reality of fear and insecurity. Only searching for and discovering the true value perspective can achieve the deliverance of humankind from this unfortunate reality. Science, in turn, must be in accord with this value perspective, which, needless to say, must be based on absolute value.
Where can the absolute value be found? It can only be found in God’s love. Truth, goodness and beauty, when they are based on God’s love, are elevated to the absolute value itself. In the end, human beings can only avoid the harm that misuse of science and technology brings when science itself recognizes God and people use technology in accordance with God’s love. (106:53, November 23, 1979)
In the library at the University of Cambridge, I saw tens of thousands of rare books in cases. I looked around to see who was studying them, but there was no one; only the librarian was there. This showed me that the age had passed when knowledge ruled the world and the pen was mightier than the sword. Money controls the world now.
Money is the element through which Satan rules the world today. Yet Satan rules the world through knowledge as well. As people seek knowledge of the external world through science, they forget about God, and in the end they lose God. Meanwhile, philosophy, which should form the backbone of knowledge, extols materialism and holds that God does not exist. Theology, which should be the head of knowledge, claims that God is dead…
Instead of believing that human beings are descended from God, intellectuals now believe that humankind is descended from the apes. Does that make God happy? Not at all. Because of ideas like that, God would sometimes like to smash the walls of the universities. (99:103-104, September 1, 1978)
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