Dan Kreft — Seven-Foot Apologist

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What is Knowledge?

Last week, I sent the kids home with the homework assignment "What is knowledge? What are the defining characteristics that distinguish it from superstition or a lucky guess?" As with all of my assignments, my hope and goal is that the kids would sit down with Dad and Mom and hash things out. As a father of four, I fully appreciate the skill of kids being able to find their own answers, but that's not really the point; the point is to get their parents involved in the class to whatever degree possible. Which actually reminds me to extend the invitation for any and all of you to drop in and stay to see what's going on in my class. I don't check IDs at the door, so if you're old enough to get something out of the class, and mature enough to not be a pest, I don't care how old (or young) you are; all are welcome.

Okay, with the administrative stuff out of the way, since I forgot to send last week's e-mail out, I only received two submissions. In a nutshell, the definitions of "knowledge" that the students came up with had a distinctly empirical/experiential flavor to them:

  • "...to be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information," and 

  • "...facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject."

It seems to me that these dictionary definitions are fine if we're asking the question, "How do we acquire knowledge" but they fall far short of our goal of understanding what knowledge actually is and what constitutes knowledge (it also is not a comprehensive definition because it fails to account for direct revelation from God, e.g. Romans 1:19, 2:14, 15).  But, this proved to be more difficult than I'd anticipated. For the sake of brevity, I'm going to present to you the answer of what knowledge is and then work backwards through some of the examples I gave in class.

Knowledge is true, justified belief.

Belief

Simply put, knowledge is a belief—it's a position, opinion, or something accepted and held by a person (Mirriam-Webster). But not just any belief, position, or opinion can qualify as "knowledge." It must first of all be...

True

Most young children "know" that Santa Claus is real, and that his reindeer can fly. They look forward to his delivery of presents every year. But this is not knowledge because, first and foremost, the tale of an obese man sliding up and down a chimney with a bag of loot is simply not true.

So what is truth? Pilate asked Jesus this very question in John 18:38. In secular and in many Christian settings, truth is often described as "that which corresponds to reality;" this is known as the "correspondence theory of truth." I used that as a simple definition of truth last week (you can see it in the top-left corner of my whiteboard) just so I wouldn't get ahead of myself. However, I think this definition falls short. Consider what God's Word has to say about truth:

  • the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7),

  • Jesus is the truth (John 14:6)

  • God's Word is truth (John 17:17; cf. John 1:1, 14)

  • All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:2, 3).

There is no truth apart from Christ Jesus, who is the exact representation of God in the flesh (Hebrews 1:3). So, a better definition of truth is "that which corresponds to the mind of God." Jason Lisle explains it this way:

Truth is not only those things spoken by God, but anything that corresponds to God’s mind.  Something is true if it is something that God would say.  Anything that God affirms or would agree with is true. (Lisle, Biblical Epistemology)

Okay, great. So far we have "knowledge is true belief." That's a good start, but there's one key ingredient missing. It must also be…

Justified

Knowledge also requires justification, or a good reason(s) for believing what you believe. To illustrate this point, I asked the class, "If I tell you that I know that it's 9:23am right now, and I had not just looked at the clock, would that be 'knowledge'?" No, it'd be a lucky guess. I can also say "I know it's going to rain tomorrow." Given that only God knows the future, this is not knowledge; it's a confident pronouncement of a hunch that's masquerading as knowledge (even if the proclamation is made in the Pacific Northwest during the Fall or Spring). At best, all we can truthfully say is "It's highly likely to rain tomorrow."

Pseudoscience and quackery are filled with unjustified beliefs posing as knowledge. I once went to a doctor who, as part of my "treatment," placed a small cardboard box full of vials of some unknown liquids upon my chest, and proceeded to press on them one by one. It would have been hilarious had I not been paying the man hundreds of dollars for this treatment (when you're in enough pain for a long enough period of time, you'll try just about anything for relief). When I asked him about what he was doing, and more importantly why, he had some kind of hand-wavy mumbo-jumbo answer and ultimately had to admit that he didn't know. What this man had was not knowledge, but he did have my money. No, it didn't help.

For a rather funny example of an unjustified belief, read up on "cargo cult."

Knowledge vs. Wisdom

If knowledge is "true, justified belief" what is wisdom?

Simply put, wisdom is knowing how to apply the true, justified, belief. One who has wisdom is said to be "wise," whereas one who lacks wisdom is called a "fool." Since wisdom is the proper and timely application of knowledge, foolishness is just the opposite: it is the lack of understanding or the refusal to act upon knowledge. Wisdom says "I'll not place my hand on a hot stove, because the last time I did that, I got burned." But the fool says "That was just a fluke; I'm going to try it again (and again, and again)." Fools hate knowledge (Proverbs 1:22) because they hate the source of knowledge (Romans 1:18-22; Psalm 14:1).

A Quick Review

Remember...

  • "Science" comes from the Latin word scientia which means "knowledge."

  • Knowledge is true, justified belief.

  • The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.

  • God's Word is truth, Jesus is the Word, and He is truth.

  • Truth is that which corresponds to the mind of God.

Now, with all of this in mind I now present the...

Homework

Given the centrality of Christ in knowledge, wisdom, and truth, how can atheists be scientists?

Have fun!