Increase of Knowledge, Diminished Wisdom

Increase of Knowledge, Diminished Wisdom

We have exponentially increased in our knowledge while our wisdom is ever diminished. We are informational-ly rich while being paupers in life-applicable Wisdom. I can Google any fact and have the answer in a moment, but wisdom is gained slowly and received from the Lord. The good news is that the Lord is generous with His wisdom. He will share His wisdom with any who ask, says James 1:5. When the unsaved conduct their lives and businesses by the principals of wisdom, they succeed. They might not know God any better, but they are blessed by Wisdom.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5

Examples of The Increase of Knowledge

Here is an example I heard of the increase of knowledge. Let’s say you measured all the accumulated knowledge of life, the universe, and everything in it that humanity gained from the beginning of recorded history until 1845. Now assigned to that knowledge a value of one inch. Using that same scale, if you measure out the knowledge gained from 1845-1945, that time frame would be represented by three inches–three times as much in just 100 years. Proceeding on, if you measured the knowledge gained from 1945-1975 it would be represented by the height of the Washington Monument (555 feet). Now can you imagine the distance needed to scale the increase of knowledge from 1975 to the present? It’s astronomical and immeasurable!

Here is another example of the increase of knowledge. Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve.” He noticed that until 1900, human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II, knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple, as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, the knowledge in nanotechnology is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average, human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.

Yet Another Example

Robert Hilliard of the FCC estimates that “at the rate at which knowledge is growing, by the time a child born today graduates from college, the amount of knowledge in the world will be four times as great as on the date of their birth. And by the time that child is 50 years old, it will be 32 times as great and 97% of everything known in the world will have been learned since the time they were born.” Just Wow! Mind-blowing, huh?

What is Wisdom

What is wisdom more than simply applying wise decisions to practical application? Well, true Wisdom is the God-given insight into our human circumstances and situations that enables us to see God’s will. For the Christian, Wisdom is seeing life from God’s point of view. This makes our relationship with Wisdom about our relationship with God.

Yet today we lack the fear of God and fail to acknowledge Him in our lives. As a result, the populous is becoming more and more foolish even while we are exponentially increasing in knowledge. The increase of informational knowledge fools us into thinking we are wise. But our glut of facts simply makes us mentally obese and unfit for any race. Wisdom is the only source of actual Life because Wisdom is Christ.

Daniel 12:4 says, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” The increase of knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to the increase of wisdom. But when there is the increase of Wisdom, there is Life!

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:2-3

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30