The essential difference between Western Civilization and the Middle East is that we seek knowledge and they seek Wisdom.
Wisdom is pure Revelation, something that is imposed regardless of the facts because it only exists in the mind of the person who thinks he owns God.
We don’t have most knowledge. But every one of a thousand sects, denominations and cults has a pure Revelation.
The only way to decide whose Revelation is right is war and persecution.
Our ancestors accepted the Gospel of Christ, and only then were they required to accept the entire load of Middle Eastern baggage that came with it. So if you were a Jew who rejected Christ, you were given the right to charge interest. If you had any other religion and rejected the Old Testament, you were burned alive.
Our ancestors were forced to accept the following hierarchy for the use of the human brain:
Above all, there is Wisdom, with a capital W. This Wisdom had no relation whatsoever to factual information. To put it as Emmanuel Kant said it when someone said his philosophy contradicted the facts, “So much the worse for the facts.” If the facts indicated that the earth was not the center of universe you insisted that it wasn’t, you were burned alive.
Second in our hierarchy for the use of the human brain is the Truth, with a capital T. Once again, if the facts contradict Truth, those who insist on facts get burned alive. But Wisdom, capital W, trumps Truth. Great philosophers of the ancient world were considered to represent Truth, but if what they said contradicted the Scriptures, it was abandoned. The Truths of philosophers were overthrown by the Wisdom of revelation.
The philosophy of Aristotle was respected, and it was respected as Truth even where it was rejected in favor of Wisdom. The old philosophical Truths were respected as what great men thought before the Ultimate Wisdom came into the world by the Revelations of Old Testament prophets.
Wisdom versus knowledge
Posted by Bob under History, How Things Work