“For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”—
Ecclesiastes 1:18
Please tell me again that this religion doesn’t promote ignorance.
A larger portion of this teaching:
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.Line 18 is an argument that rabid atheists and theists (alike!) could use to describe themselves in their belief(s).
I read into the whole verse, even different translations and interpretations, and I came way with this (from Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible):
For in much wisdom is much grief - The more we know of ourselves the less satisfied shall we be with our own hearts; and the more we know of mankind the less willing shall we be to trust them, and the less shall we admire them.
Be that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow - And why so? Because, independently of God, the principal objects of knowledge are natural and moral evils.
The Targum gives a curious paraphrase here: “The man who multiplies wisdom, when he sins and is not converted to repentance, multiplies the indignation of God against himself; and the man who adds science, and yet dies in his childhood, adds grief of heart to his relatives.” A man in science; a foolish child in conduct. How pained must they be who had the expense of his education! But there are many men-children of this sort in every age and country.
Religion promotes ignorance because faith’s greatest enemy is reason.
This is why you see church signs that claim a free thinker is Satan’s slave, why preachers will tell you to “leave everything to god” and why people like Rick Santorum claim that higher education makes you a snob.
