The Glory of God is Intelligence – Sunday, May 03, 1942
One of the most satisfying concepts of our day and of all time is this: “The glory of God is intelligence.” This refers of course not merely to intelligence as knowledge, but to intelligence as the wise and judicious use of knowledge.
We cannot define intelligence as the mere possession of knowledge, because many people who have knowledge do not make intelligent use of it. Many use knowledge for purposes of destruction, for purposes of self-gratification, for purposes of dominating or oppressing the lives of others, for the accomplishment of evil. And some who have knowledge do not use it for any purpose at all. Such misuse of knowledge, or such failure to use knowledge, does not constitute intelligence. It was once thought, and still is in some places, that when a young man set out upon a quest for academic knowledge, his faith in God would soon be destroyed.
Indeed, this is an experience that has repeated itself times without number, but it is no necessary that it should repeat itself. It isn’t the search for knowledge that loses a man his faith. It is rather the stupidity of some men after they acquire a little knowledge who then, in their conceit, suppose themselves to be self-sufficient in things of mind and of spirit. There are some who, when they wrest a truth from the unknown, begin to suppose that they are the creators of that truth rather than merely its discoverers—and there is a vast difference: “The glory of God is intelligence, or light and truth” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36), and the more intelligent a man becomes, the nearer he approaches knowledge and understanding of God. And so we can assuredly send forth our young men and women upon the quest for learning if we have forewarned them and forearmed them against letting the discovery of truth make them forget the source of that truth—against letting cold facts supplant the living power behind those facts in their thinking, for it is written: “And in nothing doth a man offend God, or against none is His wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things.” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:21)
The glory of God is intelligence—that intelligence which fosters the pursuit of knowledge, the wise use of knowledge, and recognition of the source from which knowledge comes, even God, our eternal Father.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, May 3, 1942, over Radio Station KSL and the Nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1942 .
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May 03, 1942
Broadcast Number 0,663