Instead of Wisdom, Maybe We Need Some ‘Foolishness’

A while back I wrote about the explosion of information in our world, observing that despite having oodles more knowledge now than we ever did, we haven’t experienced a corresponding increase in wisdom. It’s said that today’s smartphones give us knowledge surpassing that of all libraries combined 50 years ago. But do our smartphones provide us with more wisdom?

 

The answer, I suppose, depends on what we perceive to be wisdom. Views on morality, ethics, science, psychology, religion and many other things have changed dramatically from what they were 50 or 60 years ago. But is that because we’ve become wiser – or less wise?

My perspective, and I don’t believe I’m alone in this, is that foolishness in our society has increased exponentially. Things that used to be almost universally regarded as wrong are now hailed as right by many – and vice versa. A very old book, the Bible, foresaw this thousands of years ago:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21).

 

This says to me that even though we’ve unquestionably accumulated more than enough information and knowledge to drown in, we’re not necessarily any the wiser for it. The Scriptures address this as well:

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20).

 

Maybe it’s not worldly wisdom we need, based on the speculations of finite human minds, but foolishness – the “foolishness” of our all-wise, infinite Creator God, as 1 Corinthians 5:25 states: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is greater than man’s strength.” 

 

This isn’t saying God is foolish in the sense we typically understand. It’s more like a world-champion weightlifter telling an infant, “My little finger is stronger than your entire body.” Science, mathematics and other disciplines have taught us much, but it seems that all our learning only exposes how much we don’t know. Therefore our “wisdom” is dwarfed by even the most foolish idea the Lord could ever muster.

 

There are those who dogmatically argue against the existence of God, confident the complexities and intricacies of the world, the solar system and the vast universe can be explained by human reasoning, but I think it’s more like an ant trying to understand how the loaf of bread was created that it’s ogling at a picnic site.

 

Trying to explain biblical truth to some people is tantamount to mission impossible. Their minds are set, they have no interest in learning about an eternal, omnipresent, all-powerful God when they feel quite confident in serving as their own gods. But again, this isn’t a new development. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. For in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 5:18, 21).

 

Nevertheless, if the world around us in its “wisdom” assesses us to be fools, so be it. As the apostle Paul said, “We are fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10).

C.S. Lewis, a one-time skeptic whose quest to disprove the Bible led him instead to embracing faith in Jesus Christ, said it so well: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Perhaps as well as anyone, Lewis discovered that indeed the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom.