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Do you feel your knowledge is older then your age?
- Thread starter One Old Soul
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Plenipotent
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Naaaah...
I've consistently been described as highly intelligent my entire life. When I was 3 years old, I used to read the dictionary for fun. During second grade, my mother would take me to work with her in the mornings before school. I would read the newspaper and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate 'like an adult'. Then I would attend school and engage in debates with my teacher about the topics in the paper. This ended when the school psychiatrist had to contact my mother, asking her not to let me read the newspaper anymore. This was because I would finish all my work within the first few minutes of class and spend the rest of the day debating with the teacher, hindering her ability to teach others what I already knew. I spent a lot of time with the school psychiatrist since my teachers weren't equipped to handle me. Eventually, we had enough funds and I was pulled from school and homeschooled, and I continued to learn extensively. At the age of 13, I learned accounting. My parents thought I was destined to become a lawyer because of my knowledge of law and my ability to debate. My father had never won an argument against me until a couple of years ago. He was so excited that he got up and stated dancing and insisting I take a photo to share with our family as proof of his victory. I completed high school by the time I was 15. My first job was also 15. I worked in watch repair which surprised a lot of people, but I consider it pretty ordinary. It wasn't hard to learn. People have always thought my knowledge greatly outweighed my age. Including myself.
The reason I believe in God isn't because of my upbringing. I rejected the very idea of God as a child and ignored it as best I could. I believe in God now because of my knowledge of the world, my understanding of people, and my comprehensions align with the teachings of God. Despite growing up around Christianity and reading all the books I've read, I never read the Bible. I deliberately ignored it and the concept of God. I found the entire idea of it absurd. I couldn't be convinced of Santa Claus's existence as a 3-year-old, so why would I accept such 'unfounded' beliefs?
A few years ago, my father called me for a casual chat. I was telling him about my struggles, what I was facing, how I was perceiving it, what I think I should do. He remarked that I was preaching the gospel. He said I was quoting God's words. I wasn't. To my knowledge, I was simply expressing my truth. What I see, believe, and understand about the world. I figured my childhood teachings had simply rubbed off on me more than I'd ever realized. This prompted me to pick up a Bible and read it for the first time in my life.
What I read didn't align with what I had learned growing up, remembered, or heard from others. The stories I had been told weren't accurately represented in the text. Even quotes my parents had avidly attributed to the Bible were absent from it. I had spent my whole life hearing fabricated falsehoods about God, assuming they were His essence because those around me believed and communicated them as so. Reading the Bible, I read nothing but truth, even though I don't comprehend all of it, I recognized that what I was reading was unadulterated truth. Even concepts I don't want to accept, I have to. Because denying them would simply be lying to myself about what I see of the world around me. I can discern the positive aspects of God's teachings, even when they are difficult to embrace. Harsh realities, if you will.
It took me 34 years of being acknowledged as 'highly intelligent' by those around me to finally read the Bible.
That, in my view, makes me incredibly stupid.
I don't possess nearly as much knowledge as I thought, and my presumed 'intelligence' deprived me of 34 years of my life, leading me to believe I had more knowledge than I truly did. My 'intelligence' did nothing more than keep me ignorant. I've refused so much information because I thought I had all the answers. Now, I ask questions to things that seem simple or common knowledge, or that I think I know the answer to. If I'm not entirely sure, I ask, and I find that more times than not, I didn't really know much about something to begin with. I listen more, and have found that while my understanding of the workings of the world is unchanged, my knowledge of what's within it is miniscule.
So for me, the answer is no. If anything, it's very much the opposite now.
I've consistently been described as highly intelligent my entire life. When I was 3 years old, I used to read the dictionary for fun. During second grade, my mother would take me to work with her in the mornings before school. I would read the newspaper and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate 'like an adult'. Then I would attend school and engage in debates with my teacher about the topics in the paper. This ended when the school psychiatrist had to contact my mother, asking her not to let me read the newspaper anymore. This was because I would finish all my work within the first few minutes of class and spend the rest of the day debating with the teacher, hindering her ability to teach others what I already knew. I spent a lot of time with the school psychiatrist since my teachers weren't equipped to handle me. Eventually, we had enough funds and I was pulled from school and homeschooled, and I continued to learn extensively. At the age of 13, I learned accounting. My parents thought I was destined to become a lawyer because of my knowledge of law and my ability to debate. My father had never won an argument against me until a couple of years ago. He was so excited that he got up and stated dancing and insisting I take a photo to share with our family as proof of his victory. I completed high school by the time I was 15. My first job was also 15. I worked in watch repair which surprised a lot of people, but I consider it pretty ordinary. It wasn't hard to learn. People have always thought my knowledge greatly outweighed my age. Including myself.
The reason I believe in God isn't because of my upbringing. I rejected the very idea of God as a child and ignored it as best I could. I believe in God now because of my knowledge of the world, my understanding of people, and my comprehensions align with the teachings of God. Despite growing up around Christianity and reading all the books I've read, I never read the Bible. I deliberately ignored it and the concept of God. I found the entire idea of it absurd. I couldn't be convinced of Santa Claus's existence as a 3-year-old, so why would I accept such 'unfounded' beliefs?
A few years ago, my father called me for a casual chat. I was telling him about my struggles, what I was facing, how I was perceiving it, what I think I should do. He remarked that I was preaching the gospel. He said I was quoting God's words. I wasn't. To my knowledge, I was simply expressing my truth. What I see, believe, and understand about the world. I figured my childhood teachings had simply rubbed off on me more than I'd ever realized. This prompted me to pick up a Bible and read it for the first time in my life.
What I read didn't align with what I had learned growing up, remembered, or heard from others. The stories I had been told weren't accurately represented in the text. Even quotes my parents had avidly attributed to the Bible were absent from it. I had spent my whole life hearing fabricated falsehoods about God, assuming they were His essence because those around me believed and communicated them as so. Reading the Bible, I read nothing but truth, even though I don't comprehend all of it, I recognized that what I was reading was unadulterated truth. Even concepts I don't want to accept, I have to. Because denying them would simply be lying to myself about what I see of the world around me. I can discern the positive aspects of God's teachings, even when they are difficult to embrace. Harsh realities, if you will.
It took me 34 years of being acknowledged as 'highly intelligent' by those around me to finally read the Bible.
That, in my view, makes me incredibly stupid.
I don't possess nearly as much knowledge as I thought, and my presumed 'intelligence' deprived me of 34 years of my life, leading me to believe I had more knowledge than I truly did. My 'intelligence' did nothing more than keep me ignorant. I've refused so much information because I thought I had all the answers. Now, I ask questions to things that seem simple or common knowledge, or that I think I know the answer to. If I'm not entirely sure, I ask, and I find that more times than not, I didn't really know much about something to begin with. I listen more, and have found that while my understanding of the workings of the world is unchanged, my knowledge of what's within it is miniscule.
So for me, the answer is no. If anything, it's very much the opposite now.
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