The Cardinal Sin Is To Be A Know-It-All

Psalm 139 is one of my favorites.  It tells of an Omniscient God—a God who knows everything.  It tells me that God knew me before I was formed in the womb.  God knows every word I speak before I speak it and every thought before I think it.  Can you imagine such knowing?  Omniscience is the capacity to know everything that there is to know.  In the monotheistic religions, omniscience is an attribute of God (and God alone).  In religions that do not include a supreme deity (Buddhism and Jainism), omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain.  Some of us may be practicing the wrong religion?

To be omniscient is to have “complete, unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding, it is the ability to perceive all things.”  Imagine what it would mean to know—to know everything! We have all known people (including ourselves) who have claimed this attribute of God as their own on occasion. It is the cardinal sin born in that mythical garden of long ago and oft repeated, when a serpent who walked and talked, encouraged Eve (mother of all living) to eat of the forbidden fruit and thus become “like gods knowing both good and evil.”  William Stringfellow wrote, “It is the essence of human sin for man to boast of the power to discern (know absolutely) what is good and what is evil, and thus to be like God.” And yet, we (yes, we Christians are very good at it) do it all the time.  Democrats do it, too.  So do Republicans.  We say we know what is good?  We say we know what is bad?  We say this not only good or bad for ourselves, but we say it is also good or bad for everybody else, too!  This is the arrogance that comes to those who claim to be omniscient.

We become in our braggadocious righteousness holier than the other side, because we KNOW.  It is like saying to a person who has just lost a loved one:  “She is in a better place.”  It may or may not be better place.  How do you know?  It is like saying to a member of the opposite political party that your particular way is the only way, or God’s way!  How do you know?

We become “Know-It-Alls” in such instances.  We become persons who talk and act as though they know everything and thus dismiss the opinions, thoughts, ideas, comments, and suggestions of all others.  We become omniscient!  Like God!  Isaac Asimov put all of us “know-it-alls” in our place when he wrote, “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”

Who knows how Stonehenge came to be?