The Purpose of Knowledge

I've been reading Stephen Asma's book Why We Need Religion, and he makes this observation about the purpose of knowledge and why many of us find a purely scientific approach to truth so profoundly inadequate:

The ideal function of knowledge, for the secularist, is to ascertain the best possible description of nature...[But] For most human beings, the purpose of knowledge is not to describe the world, but to help them navigate it...what most of us need are beliefs that help us act in the world, not describe it.

Asma goes on to point out that the knowledge we use to navigate and act in the world are mostly encoded in stories and images.

Day to day, the truth we require isn't found with the scientists.

E = mc² won't tell you how to act in the world, but the Parable of the Good Samaritan will.