Intelligence and the Bible

I pride myself on my intelligence.  Other people usually tell me they can tell I'm bright.  The funny thing is, the Bible doesn't put much stock on intelligence.  I'm trying to think of a biblical hero who was learned.  The only one I can really think of is Luke, the physician.  The Greeks put a lot of stock in learning.  Christians, not so much.

If an atheist says Christians are stupid, the accusation may be well-founded.  Christianity is not a religion of the mind, but of the heart and soul.  Most religions are.

This is why religion, any religion, isn't a popular idea.

I'm a doubting Thomas.  I like to see with my own eyes and feel with my own hands the handprints of God's work.  I like to make sense of the world.  Christianity doesn't make sense all of the time.  Sometimes it does.

You see my struggle here?  Is it wrong to want to find answers when I should be building faith?  Is it okay to want proof?

Neither love nor faith should be blind.  Sometimes I wonder if I really love God.  If I loved Him, wouldn't I be more obedient?  Wouldn't I spend more time in my Bible?  Wouldn't I be more a more loving person?

I read prolificly.  Not as much as some, but more than most.  All that being said, I don't know my Bible that well.  I know where some stuff is, but overall, my Bible IQ is the reverse of my reading habits:  more than some, less than most.  Or maybe not.  Plenty of Christians don't know their Bible that well.

We're not supposed to understand God.  I say I accept this, yet I still try to understand what's going on in my life, as it happens.

I write fiction too, so sometimes I just want to fall away for a little while, hit rock bottom, and come back again into the light.  It's a well-scripted story, and one I'm familiar with.

The problem with planning to sin, with the storyline, is that I don't know if I have that kind of time.  Everyone says the world is ending soon.


The Bible's a funny book.  People say it contradicts itself.  Does it?  I don't know, I've never read the whole thing through.  Would I find it if I did?  Probably not.  I don't pay that much attention.  I don't read between the lines.  I read for the sake of enjoyment, most of the time.  I miss the most important things.