The sooner you realize that the major cable news networks are a waste of your time, the better. Its garbage.
Oh man I want to be more well-rounded but I don't want something to influence or put something in my brain to doubt my faith. I'll think about it.
If you feel uncomfortable questioning what you think is the truth, your pursuit for knowledge isn't going to go very far.
Can't I become knowledgeable without having to cross religion? It doesn't have to revolve around that, does it? I want to become a geek, not a monk or religious nut. I want to have my boundaries, and stay sane, not flood my brain with questions, that may lead to something worse possibly affecting people and family around me. I want to gain wisdom, be a source of wisdom and knowledge, and be acknowledged as such.
Just become a fundamentalist Christian and then call it a life... you won't have to question anything, and your entire moral structure and values will be choosen for you.... and better yet, when something really bothers you, and it goes against your fundamentalist morals, you get to back track and convince yourself that your fundamentalist Christian values really are right. But.... yeah, you can just go the L Ron Hubbard route, but you will have less buddies to help you judge others.
while I'm one of those Socrates "the smartest person is someone who realizes how dumb they are in the grand scheme of things" kind of guys, I think for you to become, if not "a source of wisdom", then at least wiser---you have to reach out and get out of your comfort zone. You can't become wise by studying whatever fits your beliefs. That's like biking on a treadmill to try to gain upper body strength. You'll never grow intellectually if your moral and intellectual muscles are being merely stretched rather than strained and profoundly challenged. I've debated white supremacists, and staunch Social Darwinists. and I have to say, I am a more well-rounded person for it. you can't defend your ideas and pursue them consistently if you're just preaching to the choir. here, I'm an avowed democratic socialist atheist, which appears to be the opposite of everything you are. If you want to get into a discussion about anything, I can drop my email/Facebook to you in private. just don't be vandalizing my wall or some s*** and we're cool. i don't bite...most of the time. if you're uncomfortable with that, so be it, but the offer is open.
Interesting philosophical discussion around this. I have no doubt that we are generating huge amounts of data. (I saw a 2TB external HD the other day... that's a massive amount of digits that make up songs and photos and movies... I remember in the early 1990's we talked about terabytes as if they were mythical creatures.) Anyway, I think there's a difference between data and doing something with it, which is information. There's a further distinction between information and knowledge. And then there's a big gulf between knowledge and wisdom. There's a tremendous amount of knowledge out there these days, but I suspect (factoring in culture) the difference in wisdom between, say, St. Augustine and anyone today is not that great.
I think there are two responses that bothered me a bit. 1. "Do what you enjoy." I can understand the majority of people may argue you won't be able to absorb it and life should be done doing what you enjoy. However, if your interest is the pure pursuit of broadening your knowledge, it should be clear that extremes, what you dislike, what you know the least of, will push your boundaries furthest out from where they started. 2. Even when trying to disregard the tone in which this post was written, it is still full of conceit and very singular in perception; why ignore how others have approached life? The OP is asking for exposure and a methodology - something you can definitely benefit from by asking the experience of others. Reinvention, having a critical mind and walking your own path is something that can be done regardless of being exposed to how others do it.
If you really want to know a lot and become well rounded you need to develop an insatiable curiosity and skepticism. Curious will drive you to keep on acquiring new knowledge while skepticism will drive you to question that knowledge to better understand it than just accepting it as rote facts. Every other way you acquire knowledge, reading books, watching TV, Wikipedia are just tactics that want do much without the overall strategy of being curious and skeptical. One simple thing you can do here on Clutchfans is spend some time in D & D. I know that D & D gets a bad rap for poo slinging and trolling but there are some very smart and well informed posters. If you take the time to read and follow some of the arguments and try to develop informed and rational counter arguments you can learn a lot.
Read as many books as you can. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, Sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself. Watch the news. Not for the news, but to observe. Observe our culture's relationship to and influence from information media. Our generation's history will be defined by Media with a capital m, so don't dismiss it entirely. You don't have to immerse yourself in it to learn from it. If you want to grow, you must constantly analyze context. This could be as simple as knowing what not to say, holding a door open for an extra second, or as problematically complicated as knowing when to fold, how to fit in, or where someone else is coming from. You can learn all the information in the world, but the human application is the measure of how you treat others. Some of the smartest, most-knowledgeable people I know have little concept of anything other than their own disposition, needs, and capabilities, and will understand and relate to practically no one else throughout their entire lives. Most importantly, don't let anyone else tell you what you can't do. Sincerely, Enlightened
You can acquire knowledge without crossing religion but considering that religion for most of human history has been inseparable from other aspects of human cultures that would be hard to do. Also if you are going to stick to your boundaries your quest for knowledge, or more importantly a quest for understanding, will be stunted. The only way you can grow and develop is to challenge yourself. As far as wisdom that isn't the same as knowledge and isn't something you can gain from reading a book or listening a lecture. Further you cannot become wise if you choose to remain intellectually, emotionally and spiritually comfortable behind your boundaries. Wisdom can only be gained by challenge and experience. If you want to become wise you have to go out and live and even try things that go against your current conventional wisdom. That is the only way you can truly be wise and even then you might never get there.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
You already have a projected, finite outcome and you already have a superficial goal (to be acknowledged as wise? That is just manipulating people and anyone can make anyone else think they are wise on a superficial level). There is no roadmap and there certainly isn't a way to get what you want without making yourself uncomfortable (not just spiritually). You probably need to fix and challenge and discover yourself before you will know how to learn anything. Learning how to learn is the first and sometimes hardest thing to...uh...learn. A paradox a paradox a most ingenious paradox! It also seems that you are NOT an outlier.
Read Encyclopedias??? LOL Aren't they like Outdated by the time they arrive at the store Rocket River "Oooooo!! We just landed on the Moon."
Your post reminded me of these lyrics from the Zappa song Packard Goose. Hi! It's me... the girl from the bus... Remember? The last tour? Well... Information is not knowledge Knowledge is not wisdom Wisdom is not truth Truth is not beauty Beauty is not love Love is not music Music is THE BEST... Wisdom is the domain of the Wis (which is extinct). Beauty is a French phonetic corruption Of a short cloth neck ornament Currently in resurgence... <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2EzW6lb46Fw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
