I’ve witnessed ignorance all my life—in myself and people all around me. Throughout my life I’ve seen with increasing clarity how prevalent ignorance is.
End of the World. My first epiphany of ignorance happened when I was a teenager. I had been reading books and watched a couple videos about end-times prophecy. I was fascinated with all the prophetic images in the Bible and their symbolic meanings. I quickly recognized that all the experts had different opinions. They always disagreed on small details and often had contrary opinions on major points of interpretation. I still respected these experts in Bible prophecy, but realized that no one knew everything. I was comfortable with this little bit of ignorance. We’re all human and can’t know everything. Even experts who know a lot make mistakes and lack knowledge in certain details.
As years passed, I realized the ignorance was deeper than that. The most outspoken and dramatic experts turned out to be wrong on many levels. They weren’t just ignorant on a few details, but the vast majority of what they presumed to know with confidence wasn’t true. And I’m not just talking about a few individuals. I’m talking about all of them. Every single author and speaker who claimed to know the meaning of most end-times prophetic imagery in the Bible was wrong about the vast majority of what they said. Not a few, not most, but all of them were ignorant even though they claimed to know the answers.
Preachers. So, I grew skeptical of things I heard about end times, but over the next decade that skepticism grew to preachers claiming to know what the Bible really meant in other areas also. Occasionally I’d hear preachers speak with confident authority using phrases like “If you study the original Greek and Hebrew words this is what the passage really says.”
As a youth I assumed that preachers who spoke with such authority had accurate insight into the original text, but I would occasionally notice one authoritative preacher contradicting another. Often, they said things that just didn’t set right with my own understanding, or something in my spirit would make me feel uncomfortable with their message.
If these preachers were accurately communicating the word of God, shouldn’t they be in 100% agreement with each other? But they weren’t even close. Over time, I realized that I could research the preaching of 10 different authoritative pastors teaching on the same passage of scripture and come away with 10 different interpretations. Most differences address minor details, but occasionally they would differ in major doctrines significantly enough for them to argue and accuse each other of misleading.
So, I concluded that preachers suffer from the same plague of ignorance that interpreters of end times prophecy do. I still treasure a good sermon, but I recognize that I need to study the scriptures for myself and consider its meaning carefully, weighing what I think God is telling me with what others see in them. I also need to keep in mind that if all those preachers can be mistaken, so can I.
Politics. The same pattern repeated in politics. So many people express their view with confidence. Some can debate very convincingly, backing up their opinions with seemingly reliable sources and reason. Many emphasize their view with a sense of urgency, making people think they need to take action to save the world from some disaster.
I’ve come to realize that all of these political viewpoints are wrong—every single one of them. They might have some valid points, but they always make erroneous assumptions, use invalid data, develop logical flaws in their reasoning, exaggerate, etc. The actions they push may be good in some respect, but they’re never as good or urgent as the proponents claim. The things they oppose are never as bad as they claim either. I still listen to viewpoints, and I enjoy a good, respectful debate that dives deep into opposing ideas (an extremely rare event), but I refuse to jump onboard anyone’s political agenda. I offer support where I see benefits, but I refuse to demonize those who disagree with me.
Everything Controversial. I’m the same way with philosophy, morality, religion, and many other controversial subjects where opinions are as diverse as fish in the ocean. I thoroughly enjoy studying and comparing the various beliefs and thinking about their implications. I even have my favorites that I feel are most true and good. But I strive to recognize the good and bad in all of them.
In all of these areas I find foolish people who think they’re right. Out of all the possibilities, they believe they know which one is best, the one that’s truly good, and they think everyone else is stupid because they don’t see it the same way. It seems wise to me to consider that with so many possibilities, so many opinions, and so much disagreement among highly intelligent experts, we have to admit ignorance. We can learn as much as possible, and think things through carefully, but the best we can hope for is to be a little bit right in the midst of our enormous ignorance.
Drama. Recognizing our position of universal ignorance could nearly eliminate social drama. I see it all the time on social media, frequently in the news, and even in direct human contact occasionally. Someone is ranting against someone or something. They’re usually accusing them of being stupid, selfish, greedy, vain, hateful, or evil in some fashion. The truth is, when people seem stupid, they’re usually ignorant. When you get angry at someone for their ignorance, you’re a hypocrite because we’re all in this sea of ignorance together. We are all clueless when we judge the hearts of others. At least 90% of the time we have no idea what’s going on in their heads—why they say and do things.
Correctness Bubbles? What if God put correctness bubbles over our heads one day a year so we could see how foolish we are? Imagine bubbles that glowed brighter when we said something true and good but turned darker, sucking light from around us whenever we said or did something harmful or wrong. I think we’d all be discouraged to find ourselves in a cloud of darkness before the day was half over. Perhaps God allows us to live in deluded ignorance of our own ignorance because we can’t handle being aware of how little we really know.
God. I mentioned God as if I knew he existed in the previous paragraph. God is one of those ideas that many people foolishly think they have figured out. I’m quite certain God is real, and that the gospel accounts of Jesus Christ record real, historical, supernatural events. But I’d be foolish to presume I’m any less ignorant about God than anyone else. Since I’ve chosen to believe in God, I often ask myself, “How much is God involved in his creation?” I also wonder, “Why does God leave us all in such a state of ignorance?”
I can guess at answers to these questions, and such speculation might be fun and enlightening. Assuming with confidence that any such speculation is true would be presumptuous.
Action. This line of reasoning seems to apply to most of life, but sometimes we need to choose. It’s easy to say, “I don’t know why God leaves us in such a state of ignorance,” and just leave it at that, but sometimes we need to act on a most probable truth.
For example, the US has been arguing about abortion rights for many decades. Which right has priority, a woman’s right to choose what happens inside her body, or the right of a fetus to live. Some people believe that a baby’s right to life begins at conception making abortion murder. Some believe it begins before conception and that even birth control methods that prevent conception are immoral. At the opposite extreme are those who believe a woman’s right to make choices about her body come first and the baby has no right to life until birth, when it breaths air. And there are dozens of ideas that put the baby’s right to life somewhere in between conception and birth.
We can each decide what’s moral and right for ourselves, but what’s the government’s role? Where should the laws protecting women’s rights and the right to life for a fetus draw the line? You could say, “I don’t know,” and just leave it to others to decide, but then you’ll be guilty of inaction.
In situations like this, I believe we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves as much as possible and make a choice. We have to pick a most likely truth and act on it. But as we take action, we need to remember our ignorance. We don’t know everything. We could be wrong. Fight for what you think is right, but respect those you disagree with.
End of the road. Understanding the state of ignorance in all humanity, including myself, has led me to:
seek understanding diligently,
speculate on possibilities eagerly,
pick the most likely truth when necessary,
keep reasonable options open as much as possible,
respect other opinions,
avoid presumption,
and not be judgmental.
What to do. Uncertainty may be an unsettling concept if you’ve never considered it before, but once you think it through, the implications are rather good and lead to peace of mind.
When you realize how much everyone is wrong, you don’t get frustrated with people for being wrong so much. Less anger allows you to enjoy life more.
It’s easier to not judge others when you know how wrong everyone is, including yourself.
It’s easier to be humble when you realize that you’ve no idea how wrong you are in your own opinions.
Knowing that so many things we believe might be wrong allows us to be more flexible and adapt to new data.
We can still be decisive with this understanding. We focus on choosing the most probable possibility instead of feeling like we have to know everything for certain. (In reality, we usually choose what we think is the most probable possibility anyway. We just like to convince ourselves we know things for certain because we feel better about our decisions when we’re certain.)
Even when you disagree with someone on nearly everything, you can sense unity in the fact that you’re both human, wrong about many things, and hopefully right on a few points.
Seek all the truth and wisdom you can find. Knowledge and understanding are good. Remember that pride and self-confidence are foolish, because no matter how much you know, you're still in the dark on many things. When you're tempted to get frustrated and judge others who are wrong about things, remind yourself that it's okay for them to be wrong. Everybody's wrong about many things. They're human. In spite of their flaws, you can still love them, find things to enjoy together, even find common ground to experience unity and bond with them.
I’m wrong; you’re wrong; we’re all wrong. We can embrace that understanding and thrive with it.