Imagination is Important than Knowledge

There is something about growing up that gradually makes us value knowledge over imagination.

Very often as we grow older we lose a sense of that sort of playful imagination we have has young children and replace it the knowledge we gradually gain throughout our lives with the experiences we go through.

We learn that Santa Claus is not real and that there is not actually a magical fairy that rewards children with gifts when they put their tooth under their pillow. These are things we gain knowledge of and as the years go by we seem to get more and more of it.

Despite the gradual accumulation of knowledge, I hold the view that it is in fact imagination that truly matters. It is this need to look beyond what is known that truly matters. For me, it isn't knowledge that truly makes a difference in our lives or our world, but rather it is the ability to see beyond that truly is significant.

Why Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge?

This takes some skill, and in many instances, it takes regressing back to a period in our lives that we may have forgotten. As I said before we gain knowledge through our experiences. We see things, we hear things, we feel things, and as a result, our perceptions are better or worse based on those experiences.

In this undergo or cause to undergo a gradual process of transformation of perception, we gain our understanding of things as they are or how they are taught to us.

This concept of understanding what is at hand is the definition of knowledge. Yet even if there are things we claim to understand such as the laws of gravity or nature, it doesn't do us much help to simply know these things.

In fact, in many ways it is our unlearning of these things that have made all the difference in the world. Einstein refered: "I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

When we think about human beings we can observably see that we are one of the weakest species on the planet in terms of pure physicality. Human beings were not blessed with any physical gifts. We in comparison to other creatures are a rather weak species of animal. Even the strongest among us would falter pathetically in the face of other animals.

What has happened however is that we have lost sight of imagination as the driving force between extinction, due to being an inferior species in physicality, and knowledge.We often look to knowledge to explain things and to a degree it delivers.

Yet if we look at all throughout history how many times has knowledge failed us? We used to know that human beings couldn't fly. We used to know that the earth was flat and that sailing on it too far one way would cause you to fall over.

What has happened however is that we have forgotten the idea that imagination matters more than knowledge. When you know something you are very constrained to the various standards that have to be met for something to be what it is. For hundreds of years, the idea of flight was looked at as a figment of our imagination.

We had knowledge that human beings could not fly, that we are biologically not molded to be able to take flight. Yet people like the The Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright used their imagination to create flying the world's first successful airplane, human beings ever sustained flight. Now we can fly to every corner of the globe within a day or two. All of this started with a bit of imagination.

It seems that imagination is the ability to see knowledge and reality and to mold into something better, something that benefits us.The problem, however, lies in the fact that we have lost a sense of that. We have become a society that values knowledge over imagination when it is indeed in fact imagination that has been able to extend human existence past extinction.

What makes imagination so much more important than knowledge is the mere fact that we are biologically engineered to be imaginative, to be creative, to take the base reality we experience and mold it into something beautiful, if we are brave to do so.

Unfortunately, a lot of this bravery is shut down early on. You have people that are different but are encouraged to be stuck in this sort of bubble of "knowledge" that we like to push onto others because it is easier. Imagination restrain a reaction or stop oneself acting on an emotion and as a result, our world becomes stagnant and ruined.

Too many people are so confident in what they say and what they claim to know. Governments giving people their knowledge of how we should behave and act. Parents using their knowledge of the world to a distinctive and typical style, form, or characters their children into something they may not want to be.

We take for granted our knowledge and refuse to look at other areas. Perhaps the biggest issue is that too many good and noble people don't understand how much more powerful imagination is than knowledge. On the contrary, it seems that too many evil, sadistic, and cruel people know that imagination is more important than knowledge and manipulate the previously mentioned good and noble people into conforming to their knowledge, to their truth, to their reality.

We look to institutions and to politicians with the assumption that they are more knowledgable, meanwhile, they are using their imagination to create a world only fit for them. The solution lies in rediscovering the sort of imagination that captivates what we want in this world. Knowledge can only take you so far, once we realize that knowledge is provisional, then we can hope to better our world.

Part of the solution to this is going back to the mindset we had as children. This sort of overly active imagination is what breeds life into life. We have to unlearn years of bad behavior and habits that can be difficult to undo. We need to not only regain a grip on our imagination but do not allow the twisted imagination of the people we have for so long trusted because of their "knowledge" to continue to influence our world.

It is not only a matter of finding our lost imagination but to redirect it in a direction opposite to what has been done. We have to stop using our imagination to conjure up new materialistic development. Imagination is a gift whether it be from evolution or a higher power but in the end, it is something that we should have great care for.It is when we do this, that we can hope to secure a more promising and imaginative future.