Little knowledge is dangerous?

Question

so why do Bible-fundamentalists just limit their knowledge with just the Bible?

Answer 1

The quote "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" isn't referring to having a small amount of over-all knowledge. It is referring to having a small amount of knowledge in any specific subject.

Basically, its saying that if a person has learned a little bit about something they may try to act on that knowledge, and, due to their insufficient understanding of the subject, cause problems.

You can see this happen in a lot of fields. For instance, with computers, if you know just a little bit about programming you could easily write a program that could screw up your computer.

If you have no knowledge about programming, you wouldn't even know where to begin, so there isn't much danger of you being able to put together a program that does anything at all. If you have a lot of knowledge, you could probably write a program that works correctly.

It is when you have just a small amount of knowledge that you have a possibility of doing the most harm accidentally.

In the case of fundamentalists and the Bible you can see the same thing at work. Generally, if people really want to have a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible and they spend years researching its history and looking at the Hebrew and Greek documents that the Bible came from, they will eventually get to the point where they realize that the Bible was put together from many different conflicting documents that were changed many times by early scribes.

People that really approach learning about the Bible from an honest, scholarly standpoint very often become rather uncomfortable making statements such as saying that the Bible is perfect, or that it is God's true word. Some of the most intelligent Biblical scholars even become agnostics or atheists eventually.

However, the fundamentalists don't actually learn about the Bible in this way. They approach the Bible with the attitude that it is perfect, so they make themselves ignore all the problems in it. They remain ignorant of its history. They try to avoid any information that would make their preexisting beliefs seem invalid.

Instead, they just convince themselves that they are experts and know everything about the Bible. In truth, they really know very little about the Bible and allow themselves to recognize little of the truth they may have accidentally come across.

So, now we have huge numbers of fundamentalists that believe they have a lot of knowledge when they actually have very little. Just like in every other field, they begin to cause problems by trying to "use" their knowledge without a true understanding of it.

They use their "little knowledge" to decide that some members of society are inherently evil and proceed to do everything in their power to persecute them and discriminate against them.

They use their "little knowledge" to decide that certain medical procedures and medical research is wrong and then they put incompetent and corrupt politicians into office who happen to agree with their ignorant opinions.

They use their “little knowledge” to decide that everyone else in the world is going to hell except for themselves and people that do what they say. Thus, they make a public nuisance of themselves by harassing innocent people and trying to force favored portions of their scriptures to be displayed on government property.

In short, they use their "little knowledge" to cause a huge host of problems for everyone all around the globe.

So, you see, the problem isn't that they limit their knowledge to just the Bible. The problem is that they willfully limit their knowledge about the Bible itself. Then they use their ridiculously limited and inaccurate knowledge of it to make themselves into an unholy plague on all of humanity.

Answer 2

Total ignorance is pretty safe. If someone knows nothing & doesn't pretend to know anything then there isn't much damage they can do. If however, an ignorant person has a little information or misinformation & shares it with others, or acts on it, they may cause a lot of damage. Partial knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge. A person who believes he knows everything (& is missing some crucial details) is more dangerous than someone who doesn't think he knows anything.

Answer 3

Because we are "Bible Fundamentalist" silly. Our knowledge comes from our personal relationship with GOD. The Bible is a owners manual of sorts for that relationship. If you do not have the relationship then it would make no sense to you.

Answer 4

I do not limit my knowledge to the Bible except spiritual things. Likewise I do not read books about auto mechanics to learn how to plant a garden.

Answer 5

Well, I think you would find a good many of us are quite well educated. I have a B.A. in Religion, with a minor in Philosophy. I hold an M.A. in Theology, and have taught college level courses in Comparative Religions, History, Philosophy, Ethics, etc.......

Your own provincial bigotry, and ignorance of us, as a group, shows through in your hostile question. Learn a little my dear, before you go about publicly making a fool of yourself again.

Answer 6

Billy Wilder~ Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

Answer 7

We don't. We expand our knowledge using the same information you do and then we add to that the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sounds like a win - win to me.

Answer 8

Because the Bible is the only Truth. It is God's word. Everything else is from man.

Answer 9

Because God,s word is true and I believe in God and do not need man,s input.

Answer 10

Its the TRUTH.