Questions for Christians - Solomon's Wisdom

[Cheerful Charlie]

1 Kings 3
⁹ Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
¹⁰ And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
¹¹ And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
¹² Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
¹³ And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

-----

So the question is, why does God create us lacking great wisdom, knowing that evil will result? If God can give Solomon wisdon, why does he not give all mankind wisdom, especially moral wisdom? Why does God withhold wisdom from so many? Since God is supposedly perfectly good, it would seem giving us all great moral wisdom would naturally be something such a God would do as a matter of course.

Of course we know the answer. Mumbles about original sin, which then demands an answr as to why God tolerates original sin, and does not answer the question, why does not God give us all Wisdom as he granted Solomon?

 

[Colonel Sanders]

To me, this appears to be something along the lines of God rewarding someone who seeks wisdom for wisdom's sake rather than in the pursuit of material goals. Of course God then gives him riches over all other bitches, but still, the point is that seeking wisdom gets you more wisdom and comes with side benefits that you didn't realize would had you not sought more wisdom in the first place.

We don't start with zero wisdom and only have it bestowed upon us, by God, but when we ask God for more, then it's better. Or something.

 

[Bronzeage]

Imagine a world where everyone has true wisdom. A mind numbing bore.

In any situation, there are a limited number of smart options. We are lucky if there is just one.

If everyone had true wisdom, everyone would know what everyone else was going to do and say, all the time. That would be a truly cruel experience. I suspect people would go insane, just for the variety of it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Imagine a world where everyone has true wisdom. A mind numbing bore.

In any situation, there are a limited number of smart options. We are lucky if there is just one.

If everyone had true wisdom, everyone would know what everyone else was going to do and say, all the time. That would be a truly cruel experience. I suspect people would go insane, just for the variety of it.

Well, wisdom doesn't mean omniscience. I'm sure that you can have very wise libertarians and very wise communists and they just accept different premises. You'd get more rational and adult debates and it would take longer for those debates to devolve into Nazi allegations or accusing each other of secretly promoting a pro-rape agenda or trying to convince the other person that he's really just expressing the self-hate for his white race, but the debates would still happen and would still eventually devolve the same way.

 

[funinspace]

To me, this part is even more entertaining is 1 Kings 4:30-34 -- Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Yeah, everyone knew this uber famous King, but Christians to this day struggle to show more than this guy probably existed. It seems nobody thought him significant enough to write about him. Of course one can always argue (for the 3,219th time) that the records just didn't survive...Yahweh the hiding god....

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Hey, if you can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn't exist, you have to take it as a given that he and everything said about him was real. That's the way that proof works.

 

[4321lynx]

To me, this part is even more entertaining is 1 Kings 4:30-34 -- Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Sounds like Sheldon of the Big Bang show. And also not unlike some atheists I have met.

 

[Underseer]

1 Kings 3
⁹ Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
¹⁰ And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
¹¹ And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
¹² Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
¹³ And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

-----

So the question is, why does God create us lacking great wisdom, knowing that evil will result? If God can give Solomon wisdon, why does he not give all mankind wisdom, especially moral wisdom? Why does God withhold wisdom from so many? Since God is supposedly perfectly good, it would seem giving us all great moral wisdom would naturally be something such a God would do as a matter of course.

Of course we know the answer. Mumbles about original sin, which then demands an answr as to why God tolerates original sin, and does not answer the question, why does not God give us all Wisdom as he granted Solomon?

Uh, free will and stuff! If God didn't make us stupid, then we would know that moral behavior is the best choice, and this would rob us of our Free Will. Thus by making us more likely to sin and more likely to be tortured for eternity, God is granting us the great gift of Free Will! We should all praise His great kindness to us! [/christianlampoon]

 

[Atheos]

1 Kings 3
⁹ Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
¹⁰ And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
¹¹ And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
¹² Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
¹³ And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

-----

So the question is, why does God create us lacking great wisdom, knowing that evil will result? If God can give Solomon wisdon, why does he not give all mankind wisdom, especially moral wisdom? Why does God withhold wisdom from so many? Since God is supposedly perfectly good, it would seem giving us all great moral wisdom would naturally be something such a God would do as a matter of course.

Of course we know the answer. Mumbles about original sin, which then demands an answr as to why God tolerates original sin, and does not answer the question, why does not God give us all Wisdom as he granted Solomon?

Well, let us not forget that Solomon had to ask for it. Nothing is said there about how the wisdom was granted, but it almost sounds like it was injected instantly.

The reason I bring that up is because James 1:5 seems to indicate that the same "wish" is available to us today, but it comes at a price.

James 1:5 - If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Sounds like it's pretty much a slam dunk. "Ask and ye shall receive" and all that mess.

But hold your horses and read the fine print first.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

So there's a catch. If you ask God for wisdom and you remain a certifiable dolt unqualified to decide it's time to come in out of the thunderstorm, it's because you didn't have enough faith when you asked. That sounds real familiar. Ubiquitous christian apologetics explaining why god always behaves exactly like he would if he didn't exist. Seems this god who "gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not" actually doesn't give to all men liberally and if you have a shadow of doubt in your mind he upbraids quite liberally.

And there's actually another catch. The verse specifying how to get wisdom is right in the middle of a longer passage dealing with trials, tribulations, pain and suffering. From verse 2 to verse 15 the subject is pretty much how to deal with temptations long-term and overcome them. It looks like the implication (to me) is that the "wisdom" is going to come through long term experience with trials, and that asking for wisdom is tantamount to asking for more trials. Evidently god can't just inject wisdom for the rest of us like he did for Solomon. Or he doesn't want to. Or he just doesn't know how many of us there are that need wisdom. It just becomes a variant of the Problem of Evil. Maybe we could call it the Problem of Wisdom (PoW).

 

[Atheos]

I might add, having thought about it a bit more, that the evidence seems to favor the proposition that Yahweh doesn't want people to be wise. The one thing folks could do to piss him off from the very beginning was to take a bite of the magic fruit that was "desirable to make one wise."

 

[Sarpedon]

I also note that after being granted wisdom by god, Solomon stopped worshipping god and started worshipping idols.

 

[4321lynx]

So the question is, why does God create us lacking great wisdom, knowing that evil will result? If God can give Solomon wisdon, why does he not give all mankind wisdom, especially moral wisdom? Why does God withhold wisdom from so many? Since God is supposedly perfectly good, it would seem giving us all great moral wisdom would naturally be something such a God would do as a matter of course.

Of course we know the answer. Mumbles about original sin, which then demands an answr as to why God tolerates original sin, and does not answer the question, why does not God give us all Wisdom as he granted Solomon?

Solomon may or may not have existed.
But what who why where what for is this thing illusion delusion phantasm figment-of-imagination you call "God" ?

 

[braces_for_impact]

Solomon didn't have wisdom, he had demons, lots of demons. When demons can build your palace, you don't need wisdom.

 

[Underseer]

So the question is, why does God create us lacking great wisdom, knowing that evil will result? If God can give Solomon wisdon, why does he not give all mankind wisdom, especially moral wisdom? Why does God withhold wisdom from so many? Since God is supposedly perfectly good, it would seem giving us all great moral wisdom would naturally be something such a God would do as a matter of course.

Of course we know the answer. Mumbles about original sin, which then demands an answr as to why God tolerates original sin, and does not answer the question, why does not God give us all Wisdom as he granted Solomon?

Solomon may or may not have existed.
But what who why where what for is this thing illusion delusion phantasm figment-of-imagination you call "God" ?

I'm pretty sure Charlie is an atheist. He's offering hypotheticals for Christians to answer, and granting them certain assumptions. Even when we grant them those assumptions, the claims still don't make sense.