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CURRENTLY IN CULTURE
Information

James Toews

In the public education system, the aggressive dissemination of information is taken as an obligation. Various campaigns are launched to “educate” our children on the issues of our times. Programs are brought in to give information about various religions, sexual activity, drug use and so on. As long as the information we are passing on is deemed “accurate,” there is little that we restrict from our schools.


But is the statement, “Accurate information never hurts anyone” in fact true? One of the first stories in the Bible seems to directly challenge this claim. Adam and Eve, as the first human couple placed on earth, were given few instructions and only one prohibition: “God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die’”; (Genesis 2:16-17).

This has been a troublesome commandment for us moderns. Why should a tree whose fruit is “knowledge” be forbidden? Surely even the knowledge of evil must be a helpful thing – as long as it is accurate.

But the story of the forbidden fruit, in its elegant simplicity, confronts that assumption. Apparently knowledge can be not only dangerous but also deadly.

While few people are willing to challenge the assumption that all knowledge is good, there are a few observations which should give us cause to stop and ponder. The current generation of teenagers is more informed about sexuality, the dangers of drug use and the health hazards of tobacco than any generation in the history of mankind – and yet all this information is not being translated into good choices. In fact, it has been reported that when Police Drug Abuse Information campaigns come to a high school, the incidence of drug use rises, not falls.

This phenomenon is not restricted to children. Exposure to certain kinds of information, such as pornography, has a profound, mostly negative impact on those who encounter it. What happens, for example, to those who, because of their role in law enforcement, are exposed to vast quantities of child pornography? Is the knowledge that they gain good for them as individuals? While they play a vital role in society, that exposure can hardly leave them healthier and happier.

While offering many examples that the acquisition of knowledge is dangerous, the Bible gives almost no explanation of why. A clue, however, comes in a reminder from the apostle Paul: “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil” (Romans 16:19).

James Toews is senior pastor of Neighbourhood Church in Nanaimo, B.C.

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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