And what does knowledge achieve?

and what does knowledge achieve?

Knowledge doesn’t achieve anything. When knowledge is true, it simply apprehends what is.

Is it possible to know something that isn’t true? Surely that would be mere belief.

Let me get Biblical on you, son. Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1:

[quote]17: And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

18: For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. [/quote]

Point is, that brains don’t make you happy. The opposite, in fact. You can see through the delusions that most people live their lives throughout this world. Marx was misunderstood - he meant religion as the opiate of the people in a positive sense; it’s often the only thing that makes the lives of poor and old or otherwise hopeless people, their lives bearable, the hope that beyond death is the happiness they never knew in life. It’s pure ignorance and superstition, of course, but why be unnecessarily cruel and take their belief away from them?

And that’s why Ecclesiastes is my favorite chapter of the Bible. It’s every agnostic’s and atheist’s favorite chapter. It’s the most depressing and cynical, world-weary and wise, chapter of the Bible. There’s more poetry in that one book than all the other dozen+ books in the Old Testament. And a hell of a lot more wisdom, too - 90% of the genuine wisdom and poetry in the Judaic religion is contained in one single book in the Bible.

Having knowledge and applying knowledge are two different things.

As Mark Twain said, “A cat will never sit on a hot stove twice, neither will he sit on a cold one either.”

Call me old school,but I’ll stick with “Knowledge is power” but I think the bigger Q is, "What powers are more knowledgable?’’

Ignorance is bliss. Even God thought so when he told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Because of knowledge, the toaster was invented.
Because of the toaster, I am happy.
Ergo, knowledge make me happy.

Is it possible to know something that isn’t true? Surely that would be mere belief.[/quote]

Yeah - fair point. I’m fairly happy to admit that I’m not sure what knowledge is, if it means I don’t have to struggle to answer that simple logical extension of what I quite blithely stated, as if all knowing.

To answer your question and that of the OP’s, we’d have to get down to really fundamental stuff, such as I’m not sure I quite capable of. Everything is in that question - what is knowledge, can we know something that isn’t true: the very nature of reality, of truth, of it’s opposite, knowledge, of our ability to recognise or experience knowing…

I’m just not sure where to start. I mean, I’m not sure that I’m ready or have the energy. And I’m not sure this is the right place. Forums such as these can be a really difficult place to have discussions and require a lot of work. So, I guess I’m lazy, ignorant and I want to keep it to myself…

It can not be said with enough gravity, however - this questioning regarding knowledge is might be the most important thing a human could ever endeavour to contemplate.

Wisdom beats knowledge at everything except trivial pursuit.

But Wisdom is simply a form of knowledge, its the when, why and how of the application of knowledge