Is Christianity anti-intellectual?

Question

from nearly Day 1 God seems to have striven to keep us from understanding our world. Adam and Eve are tempted by the "sin" of knowledge. Again and again, as in Cor. 1:19 ("For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.") we are told that wisdom and knowledge are not good for us. Galileo was placed under house arrest for proving the heresy that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Today, Evolution, Plate Tectonics and the Big Bang are all being denied and villified by Christianity.

Thought?

Answer 1

Christianity also hates literacy, schools, books, libraries, and even internet sites such as this one, because they give you the tools to question faulty logic and contradictions in the Bible.

Also, in that story don't forget that God told a lie and punished the serpent for telling the truth:

God said,
"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 2:16-17

He says that if you eat from the Tree of Knowledge you'll die within the day.

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." 3:4-5

The serpent says god lied and the knowledge tree will give knowledge, (which is kind of obvious from the name...)

"She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." 3:6

And she died, right? That's what God said ...

"And the eyes of them both were opened" 3:7

Afterwards God punished the serpent to forever eat dust and all that jazz after his lie was found out. Very similar to the reactions of religious folk when you point out flaws in their dogmas.

Answer 2

honestly, most atheists come around as the most judgemental and impulsive human beings on the planet. Just because our scientific beliefs are different than yours, it doesn't mean we are anti-intellectual. You shouldn't reject something because it's hard to understand.

1) Adam and Eve were kept innocent, not ignorant. They were left without morality, not knowledge. Read, and think. Unless you conclude that Adam and Eve already knew how to sew or formulate ideas (Adam/Eve knew how to garden and name the animals), you have to conclude that they had intelligence.

2) wisdom and intelligence are not to be confused. honestly, earthly wisdom (what humans usually perceive as wise or moral) is against God's principles, so of course He doesn't approve of it.

3) I have yet to hear God say that Galileo was wrong. the Catholic clergy rejected his theory, not other Christians, or modern-day Christians. the Bible doesn't contradict Galileo's observation as it never claimed the earth was the center of the universe. Humanity is just the focal point after creation.

4) Plate tectonics is not being contradicted to the degree at which you state. Honestly, the crust's plates fit together like a jigsaw, and the Bible doesn';t contradict how volcanoes form. But the timing however is disagreed with, as the shifting is logically placed after Noah's flood, when the earth was repopulated.

Answer 3

Here is the number one problem: The Bible was translated to English. If you look at other languages English is poor at best at describing or really meaning what is says:

Love in English is Love. However how many different levels of Love can you have? In other languages you actually have different words to describe those different levels of Love but we English speakers say LOVE. I love pizza, I love my mom/dad, I love my husband/wife, etc.

Adam and Eve weren't being kept from knowledge, but the difference between good and evil. They didn't KNOW evil. Here we go again with the play on words however.

BTW the Big Bang theory breaks the Laws of Thermodynamics (entropy) so it just as equally hard to believe in man made theories such as science teaches when they don't follow their own laws.

I love the reference to the atom bomb someone posted. Science might ultimately be our demise!

God Bless

Answer 4

The Gnostics seemed to think so. The Gnostics believe that the God of the Old Testament is a false creator god. When A&E partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they see the Old Testament god as he really is. They also gain knowledge of the good true god. Offspring of A&E also had the knowledge gained from the tree. The flood was an attempt by the Old Testament god to rid the world of such knowledge. Noah was chosen because he was one of the few who remained in ignorance of the true nature of YHVH. Noah's wife, Norea along with others were directed by the angels of the true god to hide in a cave where they would be protected to pass on knowledge. Gnosis means knowledge.

Answer 5

Much of Christian theology is based on the intellect. Faith and conscience are not possible without the intellect.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, probably the most brilliant man of his time, was a theologian who wrote books on Church teaching, but he also wrote whole encyclopedias on science and nature! God created the intellect and science. In fact, Catholic teaching today is not contradicted by science AT ALL! Evolution and Big Bang are all valid theories in Catholicism if one recognizes that it was God's work which ultimately created everything.

Answer 6

in the initiating concept and as an agnostic, i might say that Christians are often anti-psychological. particularly, Christians are no longer inspired to seek for truths previous what they're taught or what's directed via the Bible as you have suggested in question. i think of that such anti-intellectualism is practiced predominantly via fundamentalist Christians. Conversely besides the undeniable fact that, the Jesuits have a attractiveness for being fairly psychological. There are people who're Christian from concern, and that concern will preclude them from questioning dogma. As a infant I attended a liberal Protestant denomination -- for which i'm grateful; in extreme college we had a Sunday college instructor who worked for NASA and who inspired us to question our faith; in effect, I became agnostic, regardless of the actuality that i will remember mentally questioning the life god at a lots youthful age. Christians would be anti-psychological, for my area, in the event that they're content cloth to be "sheep" and to stick to the Bible actually. psychological interest has an inclination to beget nontheists!

Answer 7

I don't know if Christianity, per se, is anti-intellectual. There have certainly been some intellectual giants (like CS Lewis) who have embraced Christianity.

But.

I think fundamentalism of any stripe is anti-intellectual. It certainly is, in the words of Karen Armstrong, anti-historical.

Even CS Lewis had a greater enlightening out of his first very narrow interpretation of who 'God' may be. Read 'A Grief Observed' and then 'Till We Have Faces' to see what happens when a Christian allows his mind to be broadened. It is a wonderful thing.

Answer 8

In the garden of eden, it wasn't knowledge in general... it was the knowledge of good and evil. big difference.

the bible distinguishes between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom.

"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" it says in the book of proverbs. unless someone bases their understanding of life on the "fear of the Lord", unless they have that foundation, everything else is crooked and out of balance. Just like a building: if the foundation isn't level and strong, the whole house will collapse.

so someday the modern day wacko theory of evolution will be cast aside - if not voluntarily by man, then by God.

god bless

Answer 9

First of all, don't cherry pick part of a scripture. Here's the WHOLE context of 1 Corinthians 1......

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.


It's clearly comparing the wisdom of GOD with the wisdom of man.......because mankind tends to ELEVATE their worldly wisdom above the simplicity of God's TRUTH.

Answer 10

Christianity is not against being intelligent however in my own opinion and with reguard to my own experiences it is wonderful to be wise but wisdom knowledge understanding without GOD is nothing the bible says that the fear of GOD is the begining of knowledge. fear here simply means the belief in GOD or relationship with out there is simply none outside of GOD. Yes intellectualism is what is formed outside of GOD that is not the same as wisdom or knowledge but it is birthed from ones own gain and self centered pride. GOD wasnt trying to keep ADAM AND EVE away from knowledge HE was trying to keep the in RELATIONSHIP with HIM but because they disobeyed HIM and they adapted a spirit of intellectualism and not knowledge. this is why they lost relationship or fear as stated above...... for GOD.

Answer 11

>>Today, Evolution, Plate Tectonics and the Big Bang are all being denied and villified by Christianity.<<

You are thinking of Protestantism. Are you aware that Georges Lemaitre (who proposed the Big Bang) and Nicolaus Copernicus (of whose work the Church was supportive) were Catholic priests? And that Catholicism does not oppose evolution?