Ignorance Is (Not) Bliss

There's a bumper sticker that reads: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."

I don't want to deride anyone's faith. That's not the point and it's not helpful. Faith must, in some sense, be a leap from the known into the mysterious. There comes a point at which logic and reason fail, beyond that pale, only belief will go. Faith is a beautiful, essential part of human existence that allows us to experience more than we can see, taste and touch.

Willful ignorance, however, is worthless.

No one benefits from intransigent ignorance masquerading as devout belief. It's not belief, it's mule-headed stubbornness and a refusal to do the hard work necessary to live an examined life. I apologize for the brusqueness of my tone, but few things get me more angry than contentment, and even praise, with obliviousness. It's the same attitude that led to the Great Depression, the Great Recession, slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Trail of Tears, the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades and most of the awful things done by one human being to another throughout the course of history. It's not excusable, it's not acceptable and it must stop.

Ignorance is not bliss. It's foolish, dangerous and destructive. It doesn't only hurt the one in ignorance, but everyone surrounding the ignoramus.

Jesus doesn't teach people to be ignorant, willful or otherwise. He consistently challenged the willful ignorance of the religious leaders. They didn't want to consider the human cost of their Sabbath observances, Jesus considered people over religious rites. They found ways to circumvent their family responsibilities, Jesus derided their convoluted rationale for ignoring their parents. They wanted a military, political, religious figure to lead them, Jesus challenged them to apply the Golden Rule.

If you want to be a follower of Jesus, you have to eschew ignorance. Enter into the process of discovery and start on the Disciple Cycle.

Discovery isn't Enough

When Louis Pasteur discovered that microscopic organisms were the culprit behind infections, he recommended that all doctors and nurses wash their hands between patients. There was massive resistance in the medical community because they didn’t see the benefit. Pasteur’s discovery was doing nothing to save lives because the people who needed to change weren’t doing it.

Christopher Columbus discovered (or is credited with discovering) a new world with new cultures, new plants and animals and new opportunities. Yet the European nation-states didn’t change their actions. They simply transferred their existing conflicts to the Western Hemisphere. The chance to start everything over with the new discovery was ignored.

For whatever reason we humans can be so enamored with discovery, yet change isn’t the natural next step. We want to know new things, but not have the responsibility to do anything about it. Knowledge is safe, sterile and distant. Knowledge can be contained and tamed so that it makes no demands on how we live. The US educational system is a testament to knowledge divorced from action. The test of learning is a multiple-choice exam. Riskless, feckless and pointless.

I have two degrees in bible, an undergraduate and a master’s degree. In 8 years’ worth of schooling (it may have taken me 12) I had three classes dedicated to practical experience. And there was nothing in all my education that demanded that I change. I was confronted with discoveries about Jesus, the bible and the church on a daily basis, but the litmus test used to determine the worth of my education was writing papers and taking exams. Dedicating my life to discovering more about God had no connection with changing my life to look more like Jesus.

I was discontent, but I didn’t know why. One of the reasons it took me 50% longer to finish my schooling was the fact that I flunked out of college. I didn’t do it on purpose; I just couldn’t muster up the effort necessary to turn in my final projects. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it. Eventually, after taking some time off, I was presented with a compelling reason to finish my education. If I didn’t graduate first, I couldn’t get married (that was the condition set by my father-in-law-to-be). I re-applied myself, finished college and found a purpose for all the education.

But it wasn’t quite the point of all my education. I was happy to complete the task, for the joy set before me, but it didn’t require me to apply anything that I’d discovered.

I can’t blame my professors for teaching me poorly. They did a wonderful job of educating me about the bible. I’m the one who didn’t make a connection between what I was learning and what I was doing. Our educational system isn’t designed to make that connection obvious, but ultimately, it’s my own fault that I didn’t apply everything I discovered and change my life. Not at first, anyway.

Discovery isn’t enough. It must lead to change or the knowledge is useless.