Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Friday, September 1, 2017
COMFORTING "KNOWLEDGE"
THE COMFORT OF “KNOWLEDGE”
Friday, September 01, 2017
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Grand conceptions, ideations, paradigms periodically overspread the earth. These purport to explain mankind’s mystery to itself, particularly as relates to life on earth, and to all of creation’s existence.
That there is or was a creation, a beginning, is part of the mythology and the mystery that overspreads. That there is not, or was not, a creation, a beginning, is another part of the mythology and the mystery.
All that we know is that we really do not know, for certain, anything about anything, not even ourselves. We wear the mask! We expostulate, speculate, pontificate learnedly, dogmatically, as if we did know.
“Knowledge” is comforting. Knowledge is as comforting, as loving kindness. Knowledge is as comforting as soothing beverages, fresh air, good food, warm clothes, secure shelter, healthy bodies, sweet savors, beautiful visions, pleasant thoughts, or mellow music. All “knowledge” is comforting to man, however, whenever, wherever it is acquired. Be it immanent and innate; technical and scientific or mathematical.
Knowledge yields security, even if it later turns out to be incorrect in some respect. It brought comfort. Perhaps, comfort, blessed assurance, is as good as it gets during temporality on planet earth in time.
If so, I endorse comfort in every dimension as man’s greater “knowledge” conception, until we are not.