Wisdom is the Principal Thing
- stephenstrent7
- Nov 22
- 3 min read
Where Science Meets the Doctrine and Covenants, for the Come Follow Me lesson Nov 24-30; Doctrine and Covenants 135-136
Doctrine and Covenants Section 136 was, “The word and will of the Lord, given through President Brigham Young at Winter Quarters, the camp of Israel, Omaha Nation, on the west bank of the Missouri River, near Council Bluffs, Iowa.”
Doctrine and Covenants 136:32-33 states, “Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear; For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly.”
These verses teach the great lesson that humility is the foundation of wisdom. One definition of humility is “the quality of having a modest view of one’s value or importance”. Another is, “freedom from pride or arrogance”. The definition of “humble” is “not proud or haughty; not arrogant or assertive”.2 That definition of humble tells us what being humble is not, but it does not tell us what it is. Synonyms of humble include: “meek”, “deferential”, “respectful”, “submissive”, “self-effacing”, “unassertive”, “unpresuming”, “modest”, “unassuming”, “self-deprecating”, and “free from vanity”.3
Although some of the qualities listed above are part of humility, I think something is missing in those definitions of humility if it is going to lead us to wisdom. I think “the quality of having a modest view of one’s value or importance” is getting there, but it still falls short. That statement reminds me of Proverbs 3:7, “Be not wise in thine own eyes…” Perhaps the problem is that all these definitions are passive. In order for humility to lead to wisdom, it must be active. One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” The active word here is “get”: get wisdom, get understanding. Go after wisdom; go out and get it.
In my opinion, being “submissive”, “self-effacing”, “unassertive”, “unpresuming”, or “self-deprecating” does not get wisdom. I think the main word missing in Merriam-Webster’s definition of humility is “teachable”. By teachable, I don’t mean passively teachable, I mean hungering and thirsting after wisdom. I think wisdom is knowing how little you know compared to what there is to know, but also having the drive to plunge into that unknown.
In my opinion, one of the greatest sources of humility is the illustration at the beginning of this essay. It illustrates what we think we know about the universe. Dark Matter and Dark Energy, combined, make up around 96% of the universe (the amount is usually given as around 95.4%). The remaining roughly 4.6% is what we call “regular matter”. Around 3.8% of the total is Free Hydrogen and Helium, and the remaining around 0.8% is “Luminous Matter”, the part of the universe we can “see”. But that’s not quite true either, because around 0.3% is Neutrinos, which we can’t see. What is left, around 0.5% of the total “known” universe, is what we can actually see. The vast majority of that is stars, including our sun, and our sun is only a miniscule fraction of all the stars.
The part of the universe with which we directly interact, is what is left: around 0.03% of the total universe. Here is wisdom, if we are humble enough to recognize it: 99.97% of our “known” universe is outside of our normal realm of knowledge, and the vast majority is currently unknowable. We only “know” about Dark Matter and Dark Energy because of their apparent effect on other parts of the universe. For example, Dark Matter is apparently responsible for the shape and distribution of galaxies. That’s it. That’s all we know about Dark Matter at present. Until people like Vara Rubin proposed that Dark Matter shapes the galaxies, we didn’t even know that. This reminder of how little we know makes me ask: is there other matter in our universe and beyond which has no known interaction with anything in our universe, and therefore, although it may well exist, is entirely unknowable at present.
To me, it’s those words, “at present” that drives the kind of curiosity that molds humility into wisdom. Humility is knowing what we don’t know, but wisdom drives us to plunge into the unknown.
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Pimbblet, Kevin, The Conversation, theconversation.com/study-finds-dark-matter-and-dark-energy-may-not-exist-heres-what-to-make-of-it-88181, 2017; Cosmological Composition Pie Chart (CC-BY-3.0). Ben Finney; Wikimedia Commons
2. Merriam-Webster
3. Oxford Languages
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