Somewhere in the book written by Ecclesiastes there are the words, Knowledge is a curse – or something similar. Perhaps he is near the mark. We can think of knowledge as the contents of our memory, both individual and collective. Most creatures have a memory of some kind, but what distinguishes us is that we can become conscious of our past experiences by means of recall. And we have other highly-developed abilities, too : we can think, and we can imagine the future. So, by recalling the past and comparing it with the present – by thinking about what was and what is – we can detect a kind of process at work. From there, we can imagine what the future might hold for us, and also how that future might be amended. And all this tempts some of us to imagine that we might become masters of our own destiny.
But why should knowledge be a curse? Because it is never complete ; and because it is never precisely known. Thus all our plans for the future are flawed right from the start. From this mere weakness, many strong evils emerge.
Jamie
This is indeed a topic that my produce a variety of many different illusions of knowledge, of good and bad.
In the very old Dutch translations of the Bible that tree was called the tree of “Knowledge of good and bad” and look what happened; some later translations called it the tree with “the forbidden fruit” and nowadays some say that it was not a tree, or that there was never a tree in the first place.
The peculiar point to the one who likes to smile is that the tree evokes something good or bad even by those who deny the existence of the tree.
Knowledge is a most elusive commodity and I always end up a tad weary of those who claim to have so much more of it than others. You do know that some scholars have proved that young born infants have no fear of trees; would that be so because they have not acquired knowledge yet?
Morning Ike,
Your mention of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a timely one in the context of Book of Ecclesiastes – Goaway on MyT tells me that he is actually King Solomon, the wise king. He would have read Genesis.
It’s interesting, too, that cognitive psychologists maintain that our knowledge is contained in the interconnections between brain cells that are called dendrites (trees in Greek) ; these microscopic structures actually resemble the branches and twigs of trees. The poet in me wants to write about this!
Good morning to you too, Jamie
Go ahead and write about it then; it will be delightful coming from you.
As for me, I prefer the trees our Creator planted for us; some people have rocks in their heads but I certainly don’t have a tree growing in it. At least, I have not had to trim any branches growing out of my ears yet.
I am not doing much about Blogging right now but I am still busy with more research for My Genesis and started a little survey recently. I have placed some comments on it in various Blogs with no response whatsoever; the survey is done in the streets just asking some simple questions like “How far is Russia from China” [in the actual survey I have had one correct answer so far] and “Can you tell me who Salman Rushdie is/was?”
Try that in your area; when I have time I shall try to develop the inclination to do a proper Post but my current feelings tell me that children should start learning something about garden trees and how to care for them rather than having sex education at ten years old.
But Ike, if I write about dendrites and trees, I am sure to wax metafizickle, and then I’ll be in trubble with the proppa poets, like Marya.
I agree with you about the proper things for our children to learn. After junior school I spent a year in an old-fashioned, rural Secondary Modern School, where we learned the basics of plant biology and gardening (though they called it Horticulture). The school garden was a wonder, and maintained entirely by the boys – and I have forgotten nothing of the good things I learned there.
I must read your Genesis – sounds intriguing.