Knowledge and wisdom:
Knowing difference between them

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

This past April 25th marked the fiftieth anniversary of the most important scientific article of the twentieth century: James Watson and Francis Crick's description in Nature of the "double-helix" structure of DNA.

Far more than Einstein's articles on the theory of relativity, Watson and Crick's paper began a genuine revolution in human affairs.

An earlier generation, smitten by the great European physicists and living under the threat of nuclear war, thought that atomic energy was the mythical fire that men had stolen from the gods, as in the Prometheus myth. Now we know better: the stolen "fire" is the knowledge that would allow us to re-manufacture the human condition by manufacturing human beings. That's the "fire" that Watson and Crick wrested from nature in 1953.

It's a fire that should not be extinguished, for it holds out the promise of healing. But it is a fire that must be handled with extraordinary care. That is going to require our society - indeed, our civilization - to think again about the relationship between knowledge and wisdom. They're not the same thing.

Nature and purpose

Ever since the scientific revolution began in the 17th century with Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and Rene Descartes, the world has come to think about knowledge the way we think about tools. Knowledge is not knowing what things are or what things are for; rather, knowledge is knowing how things work, so that we can manipulate them as we choose.

The remarkable achievements of modern science, married to modern technology, have led many people - and the scientific establishment - to think that it's possible to ignore the old questions about the nature and purpose of things as we learn to manipulate those things more efficiently. Inside the scientific establishment, it's a given that questions about the purpose or "end" of things are to be ruthlessly bracketed in order not to impede the advance of our skills in the technical manipulation of things.

This doesn't make for good philosophy, but it wasn't all that dangerous as long as the things in question involved the parts of nature that weren't us. What Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double-helix ensured was that human beings would, eventually, become the objects of scientific and technological manipulation.

Human dignity

That possibility is now a reality. As the debates over cloning, embryonic stem-cell research, and the rest of the bio-tech revolution illustrate, we are now, thanks to Watson and Crick, at a fork in the civilizational road. And there is no way to make choices about which path to take without getting serious, once again, about questions of "human nature," human purpose, and human dignity.

Christians, who insist that the human person is a mysterious admixture of matter and spirit, bring something important to this discussion. Against those who argue that human beings are essentially the product of inorganic chemical interactions, Christians insist that the things that are most distinctively human - love, aspiration, longing, nobility, spiritual suffering, the willingness to sacrifice - can't be explained away (or explained by) reference to "altruistic genes" or biochemical processes.

Against those who treat the body as a machine inhabited by what really counts - the autonomous "will" or consciousness - Christians insist that the body is not an accidental vehicle encasing "me," but an integral part of who "I" am. In the Christian view, humanness is a both/and business: "body and soul," as the old catechisms put it; the dust of the earth and the breath of God, in Biblical language.

Moral truths

Every position in today's bio-tech debates carries within it a set of assumptions about human nature: that "human nature" is a matter of biochemistry, and thus can be manipulated like anything else in nature; that human nature is defined by human willfulness, which means that we can, legitimately, re-make ourselves as we choose; or that human nature is a unique combination of the physical and the spiritual, which suggests that there are moral truths built into us, truths to which we'd better pay very careful attention in managing the new fire of genetic knowledge.

Knowledge and wisdom are, emphatically, not the same. In the new world created by Watson and Crick, wisdom is urgently needed, if knowledge isn't to destroy what it aims to serve.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

On Father's Day:
We gratefully recall memories of Dad

	Guest  columnist  Fr. Donald Lange

"In all the world, who is the smartest, toughest, and kindest man? He can do anything and he knows almost as much as God?"

When I was a little boy some of my friends and I argued vehemently that this man was "our" dad! Since then many women have told me that as little girls they felt an equal admiration for their father.

An indelible mark

All of us who love our fathers owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. John (Sonora) Dodd for Father's Day. Most Father's Day experts maintain that she was most responsible for the first Father's Day celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Wash.

Mrs. Dodd wanted a Father's Day to honor her widowed father who heroically raised six children virtually by himself. Like her, on Father's Day, we and many others can gratefully recall ways that our father left his indelible mark on our memory.

Priceless memories

What I remember most about my dad is that he shared large quantities of quality time. Together we hunted, fished, watched ball games, prayed, worshipped, and drank pop at the local tavern.

Since my father worked at my uncle's garage just a block from our home, I spent hours watching him and others work, share windy stories, and tell jokes. These are priceless memories of love. I don't think that my father ever told me that he loved me. He did not have to, because he showed it in these and other ways.

And so a good father is important to young boys as a male role model. He can also help to give his son or daughter a sense of self worth and a moral direction: My three sisters who loved our dad as much as me showed me that a good dad is also important to young girls. And a woman once told me that a father is often the most important man in a little girl's life. How she relates to him may determine how she relates to other men.

Basketball star Rebecca Lobo once said that she admired her dad for being a pillar of strength when her mother battled breast cancer. His committed love made her realize that the most important thing that a father can do for his children is to love their mother. Obviously it is also important that a father love their children.

Model for fathers

The model for earthly fathers is our heavenly Father whom Jesus called "Abba." The word "Abba" used by Jesus refers to his Heavenly Father who is kind and compassionate and who loves us his children concretely as my father did!

Finally my dad shared his love through a unique sense of humor which he expressed until the day that he died. The final time that I saw my dad, he was in the hospital. Since it was my birthday, as I left I kidded him that he would probably outlive me. The next day he unexpectedly died.

His death left an empty spot in my heart that I partially fill with memories of the way we were. Though he still lives in my heart on earth, I believe that he is with the heavenly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoying the fullness of eternity with Mary, the saints, and others.

Gift of fatherhood

Thanks to Mrs. Dodd on Father's Day we have a graced opportunity to thank God for the gift of our father whose caring presence often mirrors or mirrored the love of our heavenly father. May we continue to support the family which the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a "domestic church" and the original cell of family life!

May all fathers enjoy a happy Father's Day on June 15 and every day!

Fr. Don Lange is pastor of St. Bridget Parish, Ridgeway, and Immaculate Conception Parish, Barneveld.