The Abuse of Knowledge
In previous ages, there was great benefit to knowing and accessing information. Today, that has changed; the benefit exists for those who know how to use information. It is no longer difficult, for example, to have access to textbooks and newspapers. What remains difficult is understanding how all the information we take in fits together. Knowing the meaning of 5000 Spanish words does not make you capable of translating Spanish, if you don’t understand grammar and syntax. 5000 random facts about the human body may be interesting, but is useless if you don’t know why those facts exist and how they can help you to live a healthier life. Similarly, the constant stream of news from websites and social media is useless if we don’t have categories by which to collate and interpret the data.
The amount of knowledge at our fingertips is unfathomable – not only the geeky facts like ‘what is the tallest building in the world’ or ‘how much does a platypus weigh,’ but even such niche subjects as ancient Assyrian chronology or the entire human genome are available for anyone with an internet connection. Until 1900, the amount of knowledge in the world doubled every 100 years; when I first published this article in 2016 (I’m significantly changing it and updating it now), knowledge was doubling every 13 months. Today, a mere 7 years later, human knowledge doubles every 12 hours. Talk about information overload.
Much could be said about the dangers of knowledge at corporate, civil, or government levels. I simply want to notice how knowledge can be abused by individuals like ourselves.
Some squander knowledge with a vain desire to be entertained. For such people, knowledge is not a gift to be treasured but a resource to be squandered. It provides fleeting entertainment in the form of diversions, endless scrolling, and wasted time. It has no inherent value, and they profit nothing from it. If anything, they dull themselves to the gift of knowledge by treating it so flippantly.
Some abuse knowledge by seeking to know what is shameful. These individuals turn God’s good gift into a curse. They use the availability of information to learn what is base, shameful, or sinful. Paul counseled all to be ‘mature’ ‘in your thinking,’ but ‘be infants in evil’ (1 Corinthians 14:20).
Some seek knowledge only to be puffed up. What was meant as a gift, to be stewarded for the advantage of others, is used only for pride. These people wish only to be known as ‘wise,’ but they never become so; they are ‘always learning, and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth’ (2 Timothy 3:7).
But some use knowledge rightly. As Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Some desire to know merely for the sake of knowing, and that is shameful curiosity. Some desire to know that they may sell their knowledge, and that too is shameful. Some desire to know for reputation’s sake, and that is shameful vanity. But there are some who desire to know that they may edify others, and that is praiseworthy; and there are some who desire to know that they themselves may be edified, and that is wise.”
This article is revised and edited from its first publishing on October 3, 2016.
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