Life isn't about how smart you are

[Darkstar]

No, I don't. Being showy and arrogant is different from being proud. To be proud means to direct your life energies towards selfish pursuits, proving your intellect, careerism, etc.

So...what is this "proving your intellect" then, if it isn't arrogance? Is doing well on tests in school "proving your intellect" and therefore destructive?

This is antithetical to true learning.

I'm guess ing your definition of true learning is letting god guide you, or something along those lines.

It is extremely destructive. It leads people to think because they have mastered one subject in one way, that they know everything.

It does? Why do we need resumes if everyone claims to know everything? People get specific degrees, certifiyong that they know that particular field, not that they know everything. I'm sure some people think they know everything, but I think arrogance would better describe that than pride.

Such beautiful irony

Is it ironic to see the greatest intellectual ferment in history coming out of a Christian civilization that values truth very highly? I don't see what is ironic about that at all.

1. I mean stuff like this:

It is authoritarian, because they will tend to want to enforce their understanding on others because of their pride. Pride is much deeper and more destructive than being arrogant.

Because religion doesn't want to force its understanding.
2. Just because some of the founders were Christian doesn't make this a Christian nation.

I think what is ironic is when atheists find the most questionable ministries e.g. Kent Hovind and they take a weak opponent and call that person the epitome of Christianity, meanwhile ignoring the fact that the entire atheist movement owes its existence to the culture of the universities that Christians founded.

The people who founded them happened to be Christian. So? Does the bible say "thou shalt found universities of higher learning"?
I don't think their being Christian was a deciding factor in the founding of said universities.

And then, on top of that, they call themselves free thinkers or complain about Christians ideological prejudices, when they themselves have just intentionally removed from vision all the serious exponents of Christianitiy.

Like who? (In all seriousness, who did you have in mind?)
It is often that the loudest, most radical and bigoted people are the ones adhering most closely to the bible (OT in particular).

55% of scientists are Christians, not that there is anything especially special about their being Christians and a great deal of science takes place at organizations that were founded to be Christian.

Fixed.
And what do you mean by "to be Christian"? What is Christian about science? Christians supported science as a mean to understanding "creation" at first, but got angry when it contradicted the bible (just ask Galileo).
EDIT: By the way, I think your 55% is high.
This is from a Christian news agency. The article seems biased, but I don't see why the statistics would be.

[jstrodel]

It wrong to live for degrees and money. People that live to prove their worth through how much money they make or whether they can publish some kind of research intending to prove their worth to themselves are shallow people and they will have a harmful impact on society. It is necessary to have a balanced end to seat the will and the intellect be aimed not at the preoccupations of the ego but towards understanding those near and far and everything else. Knowledge is different from an academic specialization, it is something very human, intertwined with love.

To reduce knowledge to pride is to cheapen it and turn something that is holy into an empty egotistical exercise. The intellect is a beautiful thing, created not to apprehend itself but the beauty which brought it into being.

I do not think learning is the same as letting God guide you. The modern world comes through Christians in education and research in instutions that were founded in many cases to train people in ministry.


You corrected my 55% (which was from a Gallup poll) with a 51%. That is 4% difference...

[Darkstar]

Well, Okay. I don't entirely agree but I don't entirely disagree either. I still think the thread title was somewhat misleading. Either that, or it was pointing out the obvious. As someone else already pointed out, life isn't about any one thing. I don't think there is anything wrong with valuing knowledge and degrees, but valuing them doesn't mean that they are the only thing you value, nor does it mean you are incapable of valuing love, which you seem to imply.

People that live to prove their worth through how much money they make or whether they can publish some kind of research intending to prove their worth to themselves are shallow people and they will have a harmful impact on society.

While I don't advocate reckless greed or egocentism, I still think the above statement is debatable.

[Justtristo]

Slightly off topic

I had a thought today that compared to eras past, the population as a whole has dumbed down. That is despite the populace is more educated and literate than ever. That might explain why people are so amazed at figures of the past like William Shakespeare who was a Grammar School dropout.

[Angrboda]