When I was younger, my sons would ask me questions and I would answer as best I could. As I get older, I find that, more and more, I answer…….”I don’t know”.
In a word…….the more, I know, the more I realize how ignorant I am.
As an individual, I have come to realize that the body of knowledge that is beyond my understanding…….is vast. This is also true for mankind collectively.
How we use the knowledge that we understand is fairly straightforward. We create tools. We build things. We entertain ourselves. We spread our family. Unfortunately, we also destroy things……and each other. Nonetheless, for better or worse, our use of the knowledge that we understand makes sense to us.
But what about the things that we do not understand? How do we handle the things that we do not know? How do we handle the things that we cannot know?
If you plot human knowledge as a curve over time, the curve rises ever more sharply. This curve is a measure of what we know. But, indirectly, it is also an indication of what we do not know. Either it will someday flatten out…….and we will know everything……..or it will continue to rise. Either perfect, complete wisdom is achievable…….or it is not.
And this concept divides us.
Some of us work very hard to expand the envelope of what we can understand. Some of us do not accept a reality beyond our knowledge. And some of us seek the answers in the spiritual realm.
The really big answers to the really big questions are either within our reach…….or they are not.
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where are we going?
Origin, purpose, destiny.
We ask science to answer these questions…….we send telescopes into space. But, every answer leads to more questions.
I don’t believe that the curve will flatten out.
I don’t believe that knowledge is finite.
I don’t believe that we will ever achieve complete wisdom……..in this world.
There is a vast body of knowledge that we do not understand and, unfortunately, the really big, really important answers are a part of that hidden knowledge.
So, I explore the spiritual realm.
The best guide that I have found on this journey……..is the Bible. I trust it because it resonates with the things that are in my heart.
A creator…….a father…….who loves me.
A need for relationship……..love.
A concrete, immutable, truth behind it all.
A hierarchy…….God> me> family> society> earth.
So…….ultimately…….I put my trust……..I build my future……on what I cannot know……..yet.
For my fellow travelers………who put their trust in what they know………in what humanity collectively knows……I have to ask:
“How is that working out for you?”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
…Solomon, ESV
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Paul, ESV