The significance of knowledge
St. Paul in his wonderful poetry in 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of knowledge as something that is not as important as love.
I believe that is a right move on his part. But I don't think that he meant to make knowledge unimportant as he sings of the value of eternal love. We are living in a time that questions the significance of knowledge. This is an era when we encounter "the death of expertise." The consequence is troublesome. For many, there aren't experts anymore; there is Google, which can give us the knowledge we need. The death of expertise has given us politicians who lack knowledge, whose ideas and speeches are so uninformed and poorly articulated. It has given us bureaucrats who operate with all kinds of crazy theories, theories disproven by scientific study a long time ago. But well-tested science can't be trusted because we all know better. Knowledge isn't everything. Paul is right. But it still matters. And it should matter to us. I happen to think there are experts. And we would do well to pay attention to them.