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Bruce Elder writes in his essay, State/Intended: Some Reflections Parallel To The Book Of All The Dead "...the more humans know, the better they know God. This teaching closed us off from the peace that passes understanding." Is knowledge closing us off from our spirituality? No. Knowledge creates understanding and appreciation about our existence which in turn brings about spirituality. One must look at the roots of knowledge (its foundation -- curiosity) in order to understand this.
Curiosity is the starting-point of knowledge and can be fulfilled through acquisition of knowledge. Curiosity is human instinct, therefore knowledge is inevitable by this mean. Thus, one could say that knowledge cures curiosity. Elder states that we lose our curiosity through knowledge and as a reaction, our spirituality is diminishing. Through this idea, Elder would be implying that curiosity and spirituality are closely linked. If this is true, we could never lose our spirituality because curiosity is infinite. Since it is impossible to know everything, curiosity will always exist and live as an essential part of our human character -- therefore, we gain spirituality through our peace and understanding.
Elder states, "knowledge closes us off from the peace that passes understanding." Knowledge does not provoke us into thinking that one day we will know everything. The fear of what we will never know does not replace our peace of understanding.
Once something is learned, we have a greater appreciation for that newly acquired knowledge. For instance, when humans learned that the world was round and not flat there became a greater appreciation -- a recognized worth for the universe. If we were to take Elder's advice, we would be at "peace" with the theory that the world was flat. However, now that we know the world is round and not flat, has this taken away from our spirituality? Or has this in fact made us appreciate the complexity of our universe? Spirituality is administered through an appreciation that can only be evolved and not contrived by ourselves. Therefore, since knowledge brings an appreciation to human society, it is safe to say that spirituality can grow from knowledge which in fact may bring one closer to God. It is ignorant for Bruce Elder to say that knowledge should be left alone and we should start finding truths within our souls rather than our calculators, because spirituality can work in many ways -- such as God. |