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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection vi
Gain Wisdom and Understanding ...
Monday, Jan 13, 2014. Our modern world has learned a lot of things about a lot of things. What science has found out, is really breathtaking. Today, we know about tiniest parts of the human body as well as about the structure of the universe. We know how to manufacture on the nano scale, and we know how to move huge amount of stone, earth, gas, petrol or other goods.
Insight …
The way science works is as follows. We try to gain insight into what happens. We try to understand the processes, by decomposing them into individual parts. We try to formulate the laws for these parts, and then put them back together to model the overall behaviour of the system. A modern philosopher needs to understand the nature of these laws, as they are given by physics, chemistry and engineering and usually put into a mathematical form, which is the only way to properly handle the complex set of laws governing natural systems.
I would say that we have gained a lot of insight into these laws, even if we are still just approximating nature. We know so much more than before. We have many hundreds of thousands of reserchers all over the world, which communicate in workshops, symposia, journals, emails, books and on a personal level. Students learn this knowledge. They start their scientific research by carrying out a PhD, then PostDocs, then working either in some company, research institute or in academia to continue to explore their particular subject.
Biblical Wisdom …
Science paired with technology is one of the success stories of the modern world. One without the other would not possible. But we also know that science is not everything. It does not really cover art. It does not penetrate our feelings. It touches politics and society only by using statistics to monitor groups and things happening. It does not give purpose, it needs to be given purpose. Science itself is like a tool of wood or stone, which we use to carry something out. But it cannot make decisions about what we want to do with it.
The biblical wisdom is on another level than science. It is much broader, much deeper, and much more targetet towards the human heart. It talks about humans and their relationship to God. It talks about the purpose of life. It talks about freedom, about peace, about forgiveness. It talks about ethics, and how ethics link into what happens in our world. And as a key point, it talks about God himself, the creator, who is beyond our material world, behind and above science, and yet active in each of the world's parts.
It is one of the key needs of our modern society, to get back to the whole picture. We have created a fascinating, but somehow empty world by making science our God. We should go back to seeing it as the tool which it is. And then, we need to put it into the full picture, by taking God into account. Let us start to realize who the Lord is, - in our personal life, and for our whole society. Let us live with the Lord today and tomorrow! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts