Knowledge

The dictionary defines knowledge as "acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation". There are two basic divisions of knowledge; religious/ philosophical (knowledge learned through religious beliefs) and scientific/ empirical (knowledge learned through facts and scientific proof). The Bible and Julius Lester's Black Folk Tales are examples of religious/ philosophical knowledge. "Intelligent Design" is an example of a scientific/ empirical way of thinking.

Religious/ philosophical knowledge is the knowledge you receive from your religious beliefs. This type of knowledge you are usually brought up with, you are taught that it is true even though there is little proof that the events you are told about occurred, it is your belief system. In the Bible the author pursues knowledge religiously. The Bible is a religious work that says how life was created and what has happened in our history. It is not proven through scientific facts but there are scientific facts that support that some occurrences could have happened. Ex. Noah's arc was a flood that was said in the bible to have occurred during a time where there was a great flood on earth.

Black Folk Tales by Julius Lester is another example of religious/ philosophical knowledge. This work explains how God created things and how they evolved from the need to change them so they were automatically changed. From example when the snake needed to protect himself he was given poison. When the snake used the poison to keep others away instead of just for protection he was

given a rattle on his tail to find out if the one he was attacking was there to hurt him or not.

Scientific/ empirical knowledge is what you know through scientific proof and facts. It is what was proven to be true through experimentation and time. This is the type of knowledge that is learned in school and generally accepted. "Intelligent Design" is a scientific theory about evolution and the origin of life. It states that "there are natural systems that cannot be adequately explained in terms of undirected natural forces and that exhibit features which in any other circumstance we would attribute to intelligence." This type of knowledge some do not consider to be scientific because it does not rely on the scientific method but it looks for evidence of "signs of intelligence".

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