Tarski wrote:Something bugs me a bit right now. Help me put my finger on it.
Consider three people:
Person A. This person has put many years of study and thought into religion and is a Christian. He attends Episcopal services. He has studied philosophy, the arguments of atheists, and the competing doctrines of the various Christian sects. He has a respect for science but does not make an idol of it. He has studied the scriptures in depth and has studied the creeds, and the history of Christianity, the influence of Greek thinking and has even gone so far as to take up ancient languages. He has delved into deep questions about the doctrine of the trinity and other questions about the nature of God. His understanding is subtle and hard won. He can converse intelligently with professors of theology. He is a theologian of sorts.
He also lives a simple and ethical life and his politics are informed by his religious convictions. He spends time defending his religion in various forums and is clever with words and a good debater.
Person B This person is a housewife and Sunday school teacher who is disinterested in intellectual matters. She reads the Bible in English and takes it fairly literally. She believes in Noah's ark. She thinks that homosexuality is wrong and is convinced the Bible backs her up. She thinks science is boring and for geeks.
Her real passion is painting landscapes but she also does a lot of charity work and is a much beloved mother. Truth be known, her IQ is such that she couldn't delve into philosophical matters with any clarity even if she wanted to.
Person C This person loves science and is a biochemist. She is not so much against religion but it just bores her. Her parents were not religious in any serious way and the common religious beliefs she has heard strike her as myths or just so stories. Once in her life just after her daughter died she felt briefly interested in the possibility of a God and afterlife. However, she only poured her heart out to God in her mourning and never really studied religious doctrines or metaphysics. That part still bored her.
Person D This guy is not intellectual at all. Not that bright actually. He has a sort of intrinsic tendency toward mischief. He digs cars, football, and was a bit of a playboy until he married at 42 years of age. He works hard and can't be pushed around. He has a simple sense of fairness and can be found sticking up for the little guy. He says he believes in God and country. He never goes to church and has only read bits of the Bible as a child. He served in the Navy and had some occasions of quite valiant behavior.
Person E
This guy is similar to person D above but a little bit more intelligent and quite a bit more ambitious. His is rich. He is the owner of a national chain of restaurants. He says he believes in God if asked but doesn't pray or attend services except special occasions.
Now, my question is this. Given that the good news of the gospel is supposed to be for everyone and assuming there is some common denominator to what God wants of us, who is in better shape from God point of view? In particular, was there some advantage for righteousness and authenticity that accrues to a person like Person A?
In short, wherein lies the virtue from God's point of view in the attitudes and lifestyle of person A (The theologian). Does God somehow encourage or favor intellectual sophistication? Is Person A, in any important sense, "closer to God" or given an open heart, more likely to be closer to God?
More generally, does God want us to "figure things out"? Notice that even Nightlion seems to do a lot of studying and pondering and intellectualizing.
Tarski,
Well met. I casually poke around the Celestial forum, but this thread you have created has piqued my interest. I would like to make a couple of comments, if you don't mind.
I admit that, while I would like to be more like person A, my intelligence level is more like that of person D. Sure, I love to read and often actually understand what I am reading--biographies, histories, and other non-fiction--but I don't believe that I have the ability to retain such information consciously for very long. Still, reading thrills me. Being a lover of early Christianity and the early Middle Ages generally, I just finished a book by noted historian Chris Wickam. Beautifully written book, but do I remember what was in Chapter 1? Nope.
Still, I try to do my best to be good to my fellow people and to not hurt anyone in the process.
Person B is interesting: a painter who is uninterested in intellectual matters. It is my understanding that Art is an intellectual matter. Some might even say that the ability to create art is the most intellectual matter there is; or at least the most human.
Person C is a biochemist who is bored by religion. But she loves science--she has an emotional attachment to it. It excites her like reading history excites me. She is bored by religion, I am bored by the mathematics of science. Other than her intelligence level, we are not that different.
Person D seems to be a stereotypical American from the southern states. But he, too has both intellectual and emotional redeeming qualities. His valientness and quick thinking probably saved lives, including his own. His sense of honor and fairness seems pretty rare in today's world.
Person E is very intelligent. It takes a lot of brain power to successfully run a business, let alone a national chain of restaurants. His hard work has paid off--and owning a business is very, very hard work--and perhaps now he is enjoying the benefits. While you or I were in college, he obtained a small business loan and bought his first franchise. Not formally educated, perhaps, but unintelligent, no.
So, I guess my point is that everyone has certain qualities, interests, strengths and weaknesses. When weighed together, in God's eyes, we are valued the same. It is what we do with our strengths and weaknesses that matters, and what we do is completely within our control.