IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Old phrases like ‘ignorance is bliss’ and ‘curiosity killed the cat’ indicate that knowledge can be harmful. However, in general, knowledge is considered to be good and man has no qualms about chasing knowledge. In some cultures and forms of religion, attaining knowledge becomes a means to salvation. Our world has seen an explosion of knowledge in recent times that would have been incomprehensible to our grandparents. While for millennia, animal based transport never changed, over the last century, man has advanced to spaceships that landed man on the moon. Today each person walks around with a supercomputer in his pocket with any knowledge he desires being available at his fingertips. But an increase of knowledge has not all been good- today’s world experiences loneliness that is unprecedented despite the connectedness brought about by the electronic world. While knowledge has multiplied, so has fear and violence. Why hasn’t knowledge delivered as promised? The garden of Eden provides some answers.
‘When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it’. (Genesis 3:6)
While God had allowed Adam and Eve to enjoy the trees in the garden for their aesthetic value and for food, both being needs for man, He had prohibited man from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And while the first two reasons Eve reasoned out were acceptable, the third wasn’t. The principle follows that any knowledge that is prohibited by God will only cause more harm than good. What followed the act of eating from the tree were shame, fear, being cursed and separation from God, resulting in death. While the sequel does sound quite intense, it is reasonable that if man owed his very existence to God, obeying God was a necessity. Gaining wisdom in this case was an act of disobedience to God.
There is more. With the act of eating from the tree, Adam and Eve decide to move away from a state where faith in God through the spirit ruled their lives to one where they themselves ruled over their lives with their souls that were enhanced by knowledge. That tension still persists today- we live our lives in a physical finite world, but have an infinite desire for all things including knowledge. The act of refusing to gain knowledge about several things we encounter would be a good thing if it enhances our ability to have faith in God.
Finally, gaining knowledge can be harmful because knowledge is not just information, but an experience. Hence man often finds that the effects of knowledge are far more than he had bargained for and he finds himself in a situation where he cannot handle the knowledge. Having a nuclear weapon requires those in authority to have the maturity to handle it wisely and refrain from using it. Parenting includes shielding young minds from harmful images and experiences that can leave life-long scars. In Adam and Eve’s case, in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they opened themselves to a whole gamut of experiences that came along with the knowledge of evil. They would have been far better off without them.
Knowledge not sanctioned by God would bring harm and ignorance can indeed be bliss!
