Discovering Your Ignorance – Education #5
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Knowing Everything
Ever notice how a person who has just learned something new about a topic is often very adamant that they have learned everything about that topic? I see it happen often in young people BUT it really has no age. I see it in myself and I am not a spring chicken. I am less like this now than when I was young, but there are so many topics and so much to learn that it never completely goes away.
Knowing a New Everything
For example, I became a Christian at age 21 and I will have you know I knew everything about it in short order. Fast forward 30+ years and after a long intellectual and spiritual journey I decided I was still a Christian, but was now a Christian Atheist. What does that mean? It means I no longer believed in the existence of spirit beings but I believed in the teachings of Jesus on how to live in this world. I will have you know I knew everything about it.
Unknowing Everything
Fast forward another 10 years and now I am a Christian Agnostic. What does that mean? It means I still believe in the teaching of Jesus on how to live in this world but I have studied enough about science to realize that the discoveries science has made in almost every field would have been so unbelievable just 20-100 years ago as to be claimed as preposterously absurd. That tells me the mysteries still out there are also preposterously absurd according to our present understanding of things and might change our understanding all over again.
Peaceful Unknowing
What that means for me is that while I don’t see direct evidence of spirit beings and I don’t see direct evidence of of a God, especially a traditional God that has his/her fingers in the human pie on a minute by minute basis, I just know there is too much we don’t know for me to say it definitely. And that put me in the most peaceful place I can be in, a place where I am open to learn and not threatened by new ideas in any area.
Coda: Dark Matter
If you are wondering what exactly it is in scientific ideas of recent years that makes me say all this, simply look up ‘Dark Matter’ and try to wrap your head around what it is. That should convince you. The book ‘Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs’ is a good book to read if you are willing to dive deep into it.
Drawing and commentary © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote by Will Durant, 1885-1981, American Author. His most famous contribution was the 11 volume ‘Story of Civilization’ written with his wife, Ariel Durant.