Monday, August 19, 2019

The Wisdom (and Foolishness) of God and the World

This week's Come Follow Me lesson includes a discussion on the contrast between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, each of which look foolish to the other. To the world, belief and faith in God is foolish because there's little solid evidence for it. Almost every piece of evidence that could support belief in God could just as easily support various other conclusions. Believing in a being we haven't seen and answering to "promptings" (i.e. voices in our heads) seem very foolish, if not actually insane, to those whose confidence is in empirical evidence.

Meanwhile, for those who believe in God, all the wisdom of the world basically amounts to nothing compared to His. God is omniscient. In contrast, humans have mortal minds and short lifespans. Even though we pass our knowledge from one generation to the next, our knowledge is severely limited. We certainly don't know anywhere near as much as God knows. God's wisdom, based on His infinite knowledge, is infinitely greater than ours.

As far as I see it, the debate between God's wisdom and the world's wisdom basically boils down to the question of whether we believe that God exists and is omniscient. If we don't believe in His existence, then the wisdom of the world easily outclasses that of some non-existent God. However, if God does exist and is omniscient, then He clearly knows a lot more than we do. The only question is whether there is an omniscient God or not, but that question can be tricky to answer. The faithful take God's existence on faith, whereas those whose belief rests in evidence withhold their belief, citing a lack of evidence. Neither side can effectively make their case to the other because each side uses their own systems for establishing belief.

So long as the world relies on evidence and the faithful rely on faith, the wisdom of God will always seem foolish to the world, and the wisdom of the world will always seem foolish compared to God.

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