In defense of being smart(er than I)

Driving in to work this morning, I listened to some evangelist railing against the intelligentsia and scholarship.

Huh, I scratched my head.

Isn’t it amazing that of all people, Christian evangelists would object to scholarship and “the intelligentsia”. I know there are those out there that would say that it is totally believable, after all, if someone professes Christianity, they’ve already demonstrated a lack of intelligence.

I won’t argue one way or the other with the latter.

My beef is with that evangelist and his ilk.

The one thing that sets humanity above the animals is precisely it’s intellect (though, some may argue otherwise… namely that nothing sets us apart from the animals.)

We, as Christian, believe that God created us. In fact, we believe that “God created humanity in God’s own image…” The Psalmist is astounded that “For You have made [humanity] a little lower than the angels”… btw, other texts actually say “You have made [humanity] little lower than God.”

My point is this: for all the time humanity has been on this planet, our goal has been the pursuit of knowledge. If God did not wish us using our intellect, the intellect that God gave us in the first place, then why give it? Why not make us slaves to our instincts, rummaging in the fields and running down prey?

Actually, there is humor in this for me. Because the anti-intellectualism espoused by this evangelist really plays right in to the hands of those who WOULD reduce humans to the status of animals, depriving us of personal responsibility and forgiving all our actions, all our faults by merely blaming it on our culture or our environment.

Humanity is meant to rise above our environment. It’s the whole point of the Creation stories that humanity is meant to rule the environment, not be ruled by it.

Only by conscious decision not to cave in to the influences of environment can we hope to progress.

Nor do I deny that environment plays a role in our development; I merely believe that we can’t fall back on our environment as a sop for our own failings.