More knowledge doesn't mean more wisdom!

How you process the knowledge or information is more important than having knowledge. 

The minds of human beings are conditioned since their childhood. Conditioned by religion, culture, tradition, politics, emotions and what not. Unless a person overcomes ‘all’ these things, he will not have a neutral mind that can process the information put before him in an unbiased and faultless way. Unless one is a Critical Thinker, one cannot achieve this.

Instead of getting rid of their irrational beliefs by using the scientific or any knowledge they gathered, aren't we seeing some people using the same knowledge to substantiate their own beliefs and misconceptions creating pseudo-science and conspiracy theories in the process (2)?

Information processing  dictates how individuals receive, analyse, decipher, store, react to it and use it.

To think perfectly in a critical way, you will have to have all the right conditions. What are those right conditions (1)?

Right fact based full knowledge on anything and everything. This will assist you in understanding a problem, analyzing and finally solving it in the right way. Example: If you are not aware that microbes cause certain diseases, your limited knowledge makes you think some God is angry with you and cursed you  and that 's why you 're suffering and that thinking makes you go for animal sacrifices to appease the God. That might not give you a desired result because you are not treating the disease in the correct manner. 

That going for 'animal sacrifices' might have origins in 'cultural and traditional conditioning of minds'. If you cannot overcome these conditioning of minds ( cultural, traditional, political, religious, ideological, and emotional ), your thought process again goes faulty.  Cultural and traditional things denote and deal with ancient uninformed thinking processes and therefore, need not  be correct.

Then you have to free yourself from cognitive biases    and fallacies that try to influence your thought processes. You have to  try to be completely neutral and highly rational. Click on the links given in coloured words and read what these biases and fallacies are and how they influence our thinking process. Most people don't even know that these things exist and that they are hijacking their cognitive capabilities!

Critical Thinking 

Scientific Thinking

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cognitive biases     

 fallacies

One good example is 'Brexit'. Most people in the UK were emotional while voting for Britain's exit from the European Union. They were also biased towards their country's 'capabilities' and 'nationalism' influenced their voting. They never thought about the consequences. When experts warned them, they refused to listen to their 'good  words'.  And now ... they are facing the worst of conditions and suffering ... need we say more?

We are facing such situations in many parts of the world now.

Ability to draw inferences or conclusions that are supported or justified by genuine evidence and evidence only. Judging according to established  professional or scientific rules or criteria using only scientific methods and methodology is lacking in irrational minds. Instead other things that are just misinformation that screws up your thinking are being accepted without giving it a second thought.

Ability to overcome fear and other uncontrolled emotions: Lack of confidence because of lack of knowledge, not analysing it in the right way if you have it, right thinking capabilities, make people illogical too. To clear your mind of fear, you should try your best to get the right information, and that in turn leads to the right  analysis of a situation and then the problem solving. You can hit the bull's eye only when your aim is perfect.

We will have to really train ourselves to overcome all these problems that interfere with our intellectual capabilities. Just having the right tool and an evolved brain is not enough. How  capable you can use it  is what dictates who you are. 

Properly analyzed information will then be stored as 'knowledge' 

  Let me give an example. 

You have some beliefs. If you get some information that goes against those beliefs, you feel uncomfortable. Cognitive dissonance, or the uncomfortable tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts simultaneously plays a role and makes people reject things that don't make them comfortable processing them. Then people spin-doctor facts to fit preconceived beliefs to reduce dissonance.

2. https://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/qs-people-asked...