Is Ignorance Bliss?

one

We’ve said that our conscience is only as good as our knowledge

a.  And that if our knowledge is deficient, then our conscience will be deficient

                                         i.    In other words, if we don’t know what’s right, we won’t be able to do what’s right.

b.  But it often happens that people are ignorant of some teaching of the faith, or of some moral principle, through no fault of their own

                                         i.    These people can’t be blamed, they can’t be held responsible, for decisions made out of an ignorance that wasn’t their fault.

                                       ii.    But then that raises an interesting question: if knowledge is what makes us responsible for our decisions, then does that make knowledge a burden? May knowledge, instead of liberating us, actually weighs us down with responsibility, and just increase our guilt when we do something wrong.

1.  Put the question another way: is ignorance bliss?

two

Many people deliberately avoid thinking deeply, or pursuing the truth, because they know that the more you know, the more is expected of you.

a.  People don’t pray, they don’t self-examine, they don’t think carefully about their lives or their actions – that way, when it’s all over, they think they can say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know any better”

                                         i.    They think they can get off the hook by pleading ignorance

b.  But of course, that’s not how it works

                                         i.    We’re not just responsible for the knowledge we already have – we’re responsible to be constantly seeking deeper understanding, a deeper possession of truth

1.  Because moral and spiritual ignorance, which means a defect in our conscience, is what causes us to hurt people.

2.  Defective, badly formed consciences, lead us to act wrongly; it can lead to attacking human goodness: it leads to attacks on the Gospel, attacks on marriage, on families, on the goodness of the body, attacks on everything that makes life worth living – it leads to attacks on life itself!

                                       ii.    So if you close you eyes and cover your ears and say, “Ignorance is bliss! I don’t want to know!” you’re basically admitting that you want to be free to destroy human goodness without being held accountable.

1.  And trust me, you will be held accountable for that shameful approach to human existence.

three

Not all ignorance is innocent

a.  Some people are ignorant for reasons that aren’t their fault.

                                         i.    For whatever reason, they just have been badly formed, badly informed

1.  These folks aren’t to blame for many of their misconceptions about right and wrong

b.  But there are two cases where we are to blame for our ignorance. There are two cases where our defective conscience is our fault.

                                         i.    The first is when we when don’t put in the effort we could to learn the truth.

1.  When we’re intellectually and spiritually lazy. When we could have known right from wrong – but we chose not to find out.

2.  That kind of negligence is a moral failure on a fundamental level – indifference to truth and avoidance of truth is evil, and if we’re guilty of it we’ll have to answer for it.

                                       ii.    The second case where we’re responsible for our badly formed consciences is when habitual sin has blinded us

1.  So many of us have known that something was wrong when we began to do it

a.  And now, we’ve been doing it so long, we’ve forgotten how wrong it is.

2.  At the last judgment, we won’t be able to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know!”

a.  In so many cases we did know; and then we made ourselves forget; we made ourselves blind by our sin.

four

Even innocent, “invincible” ignorance causes damage

a.  So we will be held accountable for the ignorance, the mal-formed consciences, that we could have and should have educated.

b.  But it’s important to remember that even honest mistakes about right and wrong cause horrible damage.

                                         i.    If I honestly think I’m shooting at a deer in the woods, and it turns out to be another hunter – well I may not be guilty before God, but I’ve still shot a man dead.

                                       ii.    And lots of people may not be guilty before God for their idolatry, or their blasphemy, or their intoxication, or their adultery, or even for their murder

1.  But they’re still destroying human goodness right and left.

c.   So we must not only be determined to pursue the truth for ourselves, but to spread it to others – so that they’re consciences can be rightly formed and they can stop causing so much inadvertent moral wreckage.

five

The pursuit of truth is the first moral obligation any of us have before God

a.  So what should our practical resolution or take away be?

                                         i.    First: seek the truth

1.  Commit to praying this podcast everyday rather than once in a while because we’ll form you in the moral teachings of Jesus

2.  Read a few paragraphs of the Catechism every day

                                       ii.    Secondly: discover the moral blind-spots that years of sin have made you oblivious to

1.  Do a brief examination of your thoughts and behaviors each day

                                      iii.    Thirdly: spread the truth to those who don’t yet know it.

b.  May Our Lord Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, give us that most precious grace of honesty, of sincerity, of putting the truth first with others, and above all with yourself.