While in the Muir woods near San Francisco, feeling small among the giant redwoods, my wife and I happened to enter into a lengthy walk and discussion with a retired professor of rhetoric from a California university. Unfortunately, his lofty degrees only made him wise in his foolishness, for he started with wrong premises and arrived at tragic conclusions. I don't perceive you are one of them. He misjudged, of course, but he was willing not to rule me out immediately because I listened and reasoned with him without being reactionary. He was an able thinker, but his beginning statements led him logically, and yet hopelessly, toward a metaphysical cliff.
Christians ought to be the world's brightest thinkers.
We may or may not have the biggest hat size or be able to collect the most data, but we certainly ought to arrive at better conclusions. We should develop the attitude that life is far better if we use our minds actively to whatever degree we are able, and that slothfulness of mind is an unfortunate misuse of the uniqueness God gave men. Learning is exercise with a purpose. Constant accessing of new thoughts by reading and conversing cogently keeps our mind exercised for gaining and retaining the more significant biblical knowledge. The sheer joy with which we approach learning helps.