A Wise Question

May 9

There is a wise question that is said to have been posed by T.S. Elliot, which is, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

The age in which we live has seen a vast increase in information. It is available at the click of the mouse on our computer, but knowledge is no longer valued by our students or by their teachers who have watered down the academic curricula in order that our young people may ‘feel good’ about themselves without effort, rather than embrace the rigors of diligent and intense study.

Wisdom appears to be lost to those who profess to possess it. Foolishness seems to be the primary characteristic of the day in which we live—from parents who value ‘friendship’ with their children above assuming the responsibilities of their lofty role in the lives of their offspring to governmental and religious leaders who have lost sight of the value of honor and truth and integrity in the execution of their elevated positions—we are swallowed up by menial thoughts and empty actions.

The Bible has an explanation for that unfortunate phenomenon in I Corinthians 2:14-16 where it says, “The man without the Spirit of God does not accept the things that come from God, for they are foolishness to him; he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned…for who has known the mind of God?…” When God, the Source of all wisdom and knowledge is dismissed by a man, the only thing left to him is information—and even that is of little interest to him, for he is steeped in foolish pursuits.