The other day a priest was speaking about the Book of Wisdom and recalling a meeting he'd had with a physician.

He was startled, said this priest (who was born abroad), at the haughtiness of the American doctor.

Asked this priest: what caused this arrogance?

The answer was knowledge. The physician was knowledgeable (at least about the human body) and was intent on letting everyone know it.

Such knowledge was undeniable but was not to be confused, noted the priest, with wisdom.

The doctor was knowledgeable but he was not very wise. No one arrogant is.

This happens in many walks of life (including the priesthood), and the reason is because we take pride, in modern times, in worldly knowledge.

We place a premium on knowledge, on details, and on facts, when the higher road is to seek wisdom, which is God's interpretation of knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to discern what is true, right, or lasting. We all need this. It reflects not man's thinking -- not just human intellectuality -- but the intellect of God.

Knowledge is the accumulation of facts and is very important but wisdom is the ability to assimilate those facts and use knowledge with insight.

Too often, those who are steeped in facts -- cluttered with them -- have a narrow perspective. 

This is one reason why the scientific world so often rejects God. The Lord can not be documented. He is too big for the microscope. He is also too big for a telescope. He cannot always be intellectualized in a way that is "rational" (save for a few philosophers) and He is not seen in the clutter of details.

There are other reasons and they occur at the spiritual level.

Knowledge often leads to pride and pride causes blindness.

Where knowledge is boastful, wisdom is humble.

Where knowledge loves self, wisdom loves others.

Where knowledge searches for the self in everything (idolizing human intellectuality), wisdom searches in all things for God.

Thus we see, in fact, that it isn't just the New Age that we have to worry about:

While the New Age and paganism in general focus on the concept of "God in self" (the idea that everyone has a God in him), so do those who exercise intellectual haughtiness.

Most evolutionists believe that creatures became increasingly complex through simple chance. Accidental genetic mutations, they theorize, caused one type of animal to survive beyond others. They are convinced (since they can't see God in that microscope) that it was an incredible series of mutations which eventually led from a one-celled creature to man.

While there has been "evolution" -- which means an "unfolding," and is even recognized by the Vatican -- the idea of "natural selection," of God having nothing to do with that unfolding, is an example of both knowledge run amok and the sort of arrogance displayed by the doctor.

This conflict is displayed even on automobiles. There are those who decorate their cars with a "fish" as a symbol of Christianity and inside the fish it often says "Jesus." Evolutionists counter with the emblem of a fish that has evolutionary legs and the name "Darwin."

Really, is anyone ready to equate Darwin with Jesus? Is an incredible series of "accidents" -- millions of them -- more likely than God?

Could the complexities of the human body -- from digestion to reproduction -- be the product of happenstance? How about lizards that can turn colors to blend perfectly in with their surroundings? That was an accident? And the humps on camels? How about the elaborate spigots in the neck of a giraffe (that keep it from choking)? Is it a mere coincidence that some creatures at the bottom of the ocean have lamps on their heads to see (or bioluminescence to attract catch to their tongues)?

Only God could cause "details" to merge in such a complex way that fits the environment and it is time to humble ourselves and acknowledge it. The examples are endless. They indicate an intelligent force that holds all things together. Left alone, such is not the case with matter. In the universe, the general rule is entropy, that something abandoned will not "evolve" but will deteriorate. Leave your steel tools outside for a few months and see what happens. Do they evolve -- or rust?

As for the universe itself, if nuclear interactions were just a fraction different than they are, stars would not blow up into those mammoth supernovas that spread elements like carbon and oxygen -- and without those elements, there would be no water and no organic molecules. Is it sheer luck that precisely the right level of force, down to a decimal, is in existence?

If a strong nuclear force were just half a percent stronger (or weaker), stars could not make carbon or oxygen in the first place.

Does anyone really think that such coordination is an accident? Does anyone actually believe that matter spun around and created the complexity of life? And as for knowledge versus wisdom, is it important to know that a flashlight fish is known as the family of Anomalopidae -- or that it is simply a "flashlight fish" that God fashioned?

Oh, let us not dismiss the importance of science. It has contributed much understanding. It has led to much good. But let us also realize that it is not the end game. It cannot stand alone. And the facts that science presents cannot be placed in perspective -- cannot lead to wisdom -- except through prayer and the discernment of Wisdom Himself, which we also know as the Holy Spirit.

Come, ye scientists; come to God; come before it is too late; come to God and turn from scientists to wisemen -- who, as we recall, from the Nativity, knew Christ when they saw Him.

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