yep... keep reading books written by people who you don't even know(personally) keep believing everything everyones tells you and not what your instincts tell you..

why is this thread focusing on Christianity? there are other Nations out there. Not just the different countries, but the different species.

No wonder you "Just don't get it."

for the ones who just don't get 'it'

1: ridicule
2: deniel
3: acceptation

those are the main. after that comes forgiveness, life, love, happiness.

only very few here have "it" and it is good to see they are trying to help others to see their 'its'.

when will be the time, that you realize how much you have, and not what you have not. maybe try to compare yourself to the starving children in Africa, and realize how good you have IT, then maybe you will stop fighting.

Jinny, if the contributors want to discuss the tension between intelligence and data acquisition through Christian eyes then who are you and who am I to challenge that? It's what they want to do.

It is also a valid approach to the OP. Abraham's faith has much to say on the matter of wisdom. It is valued highly and promises sinlessness for the faithful. A more important question for the followers of Abraham's God is to ask why they forsake wisdom in preference for love when wisdom is more important and the pathway to finding love?

Take Richie for example: She/he wants the truth from a qualified person who can explain the double death usage in Genesis 2:17 as a means to understand life's meaning. He/she thinks that because we have more data collected now than before and because we have computers we now have the means to find this truth that we didn't have before. Yet the answer was always there in the text and does not depend on computer technology, the acquisition of data (information) or indeed on truth... if only she/he would think and through that thinking gain wisdom and through that wisdom gain a decent life well lived.

It was innocence that was lost to humanity, that died upon the eating of the forbidden fruit, and only wisdom can replace it if we would but THINK. It is the essence of life, the meaning of life, the cause of data, information, computers and a myriad of other human generated activities. Thinking is the most important function of humanity.

"to think is the meaning of life for all"

How anthropocentric!

For a bat, life without a sonar is meaningless.
For the lion, life without antilopes.
For the pig, life without mud.
For the bear, life without honey.
For the miser, life without money.

And as already declared by Sage Papageno, the meaning of life is "trinken, essen, und schlafen" (drink, eat and sleep).

"Meaning" is a function of the mind, born of desire and an unnecessary imposition on reality itself. WHY MUST LIFE HAVE A MEANING IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Thinking and Wisdom are totally different things.

Thinking is a lower function: it is required for survival, like teeth to the tiger and camouflage to the chameleon. There are good thoughts and bad thoughts, practical thoughts, impractical thoughts and even delusional thoughts.

Unlike thought, wisdom is not a process, it is a presence.

Now to the most confusing term of all - LOVE:

Love can come at many levels, briefy:

1. Loving one's body.
2. Loving another's body, sexually.
3. Romantic love (drama and all).

Those first three levels are necessary for survival, so are intricately involved with thought. Further up, the more intelligent love becomes, the less thought is required.

4. Innocent, heart-felt compassion
5. Creative love
6. Knowing love

This last one is associated with wisdom, and finally:

7. God's love, transcendental and surpassing all thoughts and feelings.

Hence the source of confusion, why love is sometimes considered lower than thought and wisdom, but higher at other times.

George Jetson(as the robot of the servant addresses her Master.

I cannot change what is going on here, but I can try.

The bible has a lot of teaching. I studied it. End of the day, we belong to the same species, but fight with each other thanks to what our upbringing has done.

I hv not spend yrs on this forum as some hv. But I realized from the time spent here.. Only the ones who want a change, wiLl change. I keep my contact wt the elderly wt health issues regularly. I might leave.. Coz there is hardly any hope here... Besides, I am not here to upset anyone, just here to nake them realize how good they hv it, instead of complaining about everything under the sun.

;) there is always a brighter side of life, but it is for u and only u to choose that. not many will get it. But around the world, some do...

Hello Yuyustu,

You said, "Thinking and Wisdom are totally different things."

And I don't actually disagree with you.
Previously I said, "...if only she/he would think and through that thinking gain wisdom and through that wisdom gain a decent life well lived."

'...and through that thinking gain wisdom...' Hmmm... definitely I am treating thinking and wisdom as different things with one being used to attain the other.

But thank you anyway for the clarity of your sentence. If ever there was a person on this forum who had thought that they weren't different, they now know differently because you say so, albeit not why.

You said, "How anthropocentric!"

Epic LOL! I would love to know how you came to that conclusion. To claim the meaning of life is to think, is not an anthropocentric view necessarily. It could be if a person's thinking is inclined to anthropocentric conclusions, but equally a person's thinking could be inclined to beliefs in deep ecology.

You said, "Thinking is a lower function: it is required for survival, like teeth to the tiger and camouflage to the chameleon. There are good thoughts and bad thoughts, practical thoughts, impractical thoughts and even delusional thoughts."

I thought it was pretty obvious that the thinking I am referring to is higher order thinking on matters of morality, environmentalism, theology, philosophy etc... In fact, having just re-read my own thinking I am perfectly satisfied that there was nothing in my comments that would relate to base thinking such as... I am hungry or I am thirsty or I want sex or I am in danger etc... being the kinds of thoughts which derive life's meaning.

But what the hey... there is nothing wrong with a cheap shot now and then at the expense of another and their efforts to express serious ideas.

PS: On matters Anthropocentric, the belief in Abraham's God is an anthropocentric belief that speaks only to humans about humans and their relationship with god and their authority over earthly matters.