Is Christianity anti-intellectual?

Question

I so often see Christians pointing to 1 Cor 1:18-25 and 1 Cor 3:19 and celebrating the anti-intellectual and anti-educational sentiments of these verses.

How Is it a virtue to have less than a high school education and to be ignorant of science, history, mathematics and philosophy?

Answer 1

Einstein said, if he'd been more 'educated', it would have prevented him from grasping the insights he is famous for.

Answer 2

Not at all. Christians are not anti-intellectual but they refuse pseudo science.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29:
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

1 Corinthias 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”

Those two passages of Scripture do not say at all that God does not accept intellectual or educated people. Instead it say that
God will make the worldly people who reject His wisdom in His Word to see their own foolishness.

Because just like Psalm 14:1
The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good,
regardless of his education and degrees or titles in worldly sciences, a person who believes that those tiny satelites and sputniks which orbited around the earth must have intelligent designers and makers, but that jillions and jillions of colossal satelites, planets, stars, solar systems, and galaxies plus other celestial bodies up there orbiting so orderly and precisely without failure do not have a designer and maker, is just not using his brain properly.

No my friend, Christianity is not anti-intellectual, long before Darwin and all his sympathizers were born, there were alread Christian schools from elementary to universities around the world and are continuing to operate until now.

Answer 3

by intellectual, i am assuming that you mean the pursuit of answers. scientific, documentable, provable answers.

any religion that relies on unprovable faith based answers for things can be anti-intellectual. But many many religious people see this contradiction and find ways to infuse the teachings/morals of a religion and still pursue intellectual matters. So not all religious people are anti-intellectual.

Personally however, I firmly believe (from my own experience) that an honest pursuit of truthful answers will inevitable negate most organized religions... at least as guidelines to live by. They are certainly still cultural and ethical influences, but even those aspects can be dissected further into a more social-scientific explanation.

Not to mention that the inherent root for intellectualism is the admission that nothing is for certain, and an open mind. When you live word-for-word from a book that says otherwise, why should the earth be round?

Answer 4

Christianity is holistic, and that includes the development and employment of our intellectual capabilities.

That's not to say that all Christians approach it that way...many do not. Evangelical fundamentalists (U.S.) in particular do not, though there are some exceptions.

The primary distinction between many areas of secular thought and Christian theology, is that in secular thought there's a pronounced emphasis on rationalism...which compartmentalizes the human experience.

Christianity assumes that we're far more substantial than that; that we're able to discern reality subjectively.

And it should be noted that it's only through our subjective lense that objective truth has any use or meaning. And there's a reason for that.

Answer 5

It doesnt mean you cant BE intellectual, just that a person is not messured by his level of formal education. In the end, it doesnt matter. I dont assume someone with a PhD knows more than someone without one. Or is more valuable in any way. If it were true then we'd be fighting over who is the smartest and never get anything else done.

Answer 6

No, many of the most brilliant minds have been christians, and within a christian culture. Actually modern science, the empirical method of aqcuiring knowledge known as the "scientific method" arose in a christian culture that otherwise wouldn't have happened. One of the central themes of Christianity is the belief that the universe is rational and can be known, understood, probed and utilized. This aspect was not present in many other cultures, such as China, india or Islam where empirical science was stillborn, it fell short of reaching the status of fully grown science mainly because of its vision of a basic "irrationality" or "non-existence" of the universe. This condition of belief in Christianity which makes the universe rational and material, real... necesarily fostered an attitude of frank scientific endeavour to know and to master the world.

Think for instance of st Thomas Aquinas, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, etc..

Answer 7

I could say that you Atheists are ignorant as well when you look at the contradictory theories that plague science. Scientists say that we evolved from monkeys but there's no link or proof of that theory. Scientists say that life popped up off a rock when water and steam hit it but that sounds more miraculous than the existence of God.

Recently Astronomers are baffled by the age of the Universe. They claimed that they correctly measured the age of the Universe at between 8 to 12 billion years old. But they also discovered stars in our own galaxy that are much older than that. How can stars be older than the universe they are in?

Answer 8

ok. There are stupid people in every religon, race, and age. True that christians may be less willing to accept new scientific theories due to collisions with faith, many are still logical. Example: Evolution. There are many christians who accept evolution as truth, beleiving that god is the answer to why, not how. Ofcourse there are pockets of irrational christians, just as there is with every group, that are refusing to accept of even consider anything than what they have been taught. Unfortunatly, many people of other religons use this radicallism as the "typical beleiver" which I have found not to be true

Answer 9

I believe the thought by some might be that if your intelligence leads you into a direction away from God, you would be better off to have been born with less (intelligence or ones "self" worth), and gain eternal life.
I have never met a Christian that believes education to be be a hindrance to belief.

Answer 10

Because it allows you to live an ignorant life.

Only those who are ignorant can claim to be damn sure of something that cannot be proved.

Ignorance is bliss and education and learning shatter that bliss. I have to say though it's not only Christians who are guilty of this, a lot of the other religions are as well. Namely Hinduism. Education is India is not encouraged, especially for women, and those of a lower caste.

Answer 11

in the previous each thing theory and as an agnostic, i might say that Christians are oftentimes anti-psychological. oftentimes, Christians at the instant are not inspired to seek for truths previous what they are taught or what's directed by using the Bible as you have referred to in question. i think of that such anti-intellectualism is practiced predominantly by using fundamentalist Christians. Conversely whether, the Jesuits have a recognition for being fairly psychological. There are people who're Christian from concern, and that concern will forestall them from thinking dogma. As a newborn I attended a liberal Protestant denomination -- for which i'm grateful; in extreme college we had a Sunday college instructor who labored for NASA and who inspired us to question our faith; in result, I grew to grow to be agnostic, besides the fact that i will bear in mind mentally thinking the existence god at a lots youthful age. Christians would be anti-psychological, in my view, in the event that they are content textile to be "sheep" and to stay with the Bible actually. psychological interest has a bent to beget nontheists!