Does all knowledge come from experience? Is learning truly experience or is learning just a reasoning process that approaches experience? What is the difference between knowing and understanding? Does one rely more on reason and the other on empiricism? With this in mind, can you know God or can you understand God and which is man's goal?.
Where does one's "knowledge" come from?.
When you read a book on Aristotle, do you then know him? If you take classes on using computers, do you then know all there is to know about computers? Perhaps, but if you know something, do you then automatically understand it? Unlikely.
There are many theories that broach this subject. Many very brilliant minds have dedicated countless hours to just this debate. I can only answer these thought-provoking questions based on my limited experience. Having made that statement one can guess where my sentiments lie. Learning is merely an organizational tool that allows us to compartmentalize the experiences we will later use in a variety of other situations.
I am member of the Army National Guard and have been trained for combat, for war. I know what war is however I do not come anywhere near understanding war or the effects it has on those who have experienced it. While I may be able to understand the premise of war I cannot understand war on its full scale. I can explain to someone what I have been trained to do in war situations, however, I could not say that is actually what would occur because I have no idea what the variables of the combat situation would be. While a veteran of war could understand war on a level I could not imagine. War is not real to me it is simply a situation that I have been trained for by those who it is real to, by those who understand it. I have learned from those who were there and passed their knowledge on, so that if the time should ever arise I can understand what war is.
The ability to learn allows us the capacity to know, but understanding is a human gift or curse.