November 1, 2021
Back when I was in elementary school, both my teachers and my parents impressed upon me the importance of learning a new word every day. Now that I’m older (and spend a great deal of time writing) it’s gotten to be pretty rare that I learn a new word in the English language. But I was pleasantly surprised recently when I did learn a new word:
Nescience.
Don’t laugh at me if you already know this word. I don’t know how I missed it because it’s a valuable word.
It essentially means the state of not knowing something. I think the reason I hadn’t encountered the word “nescience” until recently is because it seems to often be confused with the word “ignorance.” But words mean things, and if two words meant exactly the same thing then one of those words wouldn’t be needed. Therefore nescience, from what I understand, means not knowing something while there’s a reasonable expectation that you wouldn’t know it.
For example, a young child is nescient about the dangers of playing in the street. There’s a reasonable expectation that a young child wouldn’t know it’s dangerous to play in the street.
Ignorance, on the other hand, is used to describe someone who doesn’t know something that they probably should know by now. It’s based off the word “ignore” after all. That means someone is choosing to ignore new information for whatever reason. Usually that reason is because it conflicts with strong beliefs they already have—whether they be religious, political, or ideological—and they really don’t want to be confronted with information that may make them wrestle with these beliefs.
Young children raised in the Church from a young age are nescient. There just isn’t a reasonable expectation for them to be able to discern that grown adults—who they associate with love and protection—are feeding them lies about the existence of God.
On the other hand, a grown and mature Christian can often be considered ignorant if he chooses to never look into books or information that may make him question his religious beliefs. He is choosing to ignore this stuff.
Outside of very young children, it’s getting much harder for people to claim nescience in the modern era. Why? Well, we have an absolute shitload of information right at our fingertips and instantly accessible at all times. There is very little excuse remaining to not know something.
I’m not suggesting you should know everything there is to know at all times. That’s impossible, of course. But what I am saying is that it’s getting much harder for you to get away with not learning about something once you become aware that there’s something you don’t know.
Ignorance has such a negative connotation, and I get why, but sometimes that negativity can go a bit overboard. Time is also an important factor here—sometimes you just haven’t had the time to address your ignorance of a certain situation. For example, say you heard there’s some new crisis overseas, but you don’t know anything about it. You’d like to, but you’ve been working overtime at your job all week to finish up a project by its deadline. You’re ignorant of the situation (ignoring it for now) and you fully admit that, but will address that when you have the time. When the work project wraps up, you finally take half an hour to sit down and read up on the overseas crisis.
Although I think ignorance can be reasonably acceptable in the short-term, I also think it can become dangerous when chosen long-term. When you refuse to entertain any other views or information other than what you already have—religious or otherwise—then you’re moving through life with only partial bits of information. There is no such thing as bad information. If it exists, it’s always worth knowing.
An example that springs to mind is ignorance of the opposing political viewpoint. You may have a strong political belief and not know why the opposing political party has a differing position simply because you’ve never bothered to look into it (you’re ignoring it). I’m not saying this because looking into it will cause your own opinion to change (it probably won’t) but understanding the opposing viewpoint can help strengthen yours. Also, if you look into a well-reasoned, well-articulated counter argument from an intelligent individual, you may begrudgingly admit that maybe the other side does have a point and that there’s perhaps more nuance to the situation than you once thought (resulting in a decrease of fundamentalism on your part).
Choosing less ignorance (less ignoring) helps to decrease the division between people and find the common ground. Even just writing that seems like a hefty ideal in today’s highly-polarized world, but it remains true in my opinion.
When you still believed, perhaps it was ignorance that kept you in the Church longer than you might’ve been otherwise. You chose to ignore atheist materials that would challenge your viewpoint. Once you decided to look into it (cease being ignorant) you went through a faith deconstruction and came out on the other side of religion. Although it was likely a difficult process, your life now is likely better than it was when you were in religion.
If this describes you, then you know first hand how deciding to stop being ignorant about something can massively improve your life. But leaving religion doesn’t just flip a switch from “ignorant” to “not ignorant” despite the fact that many atheists and Deconverted Men believe that. There is always some level of ignorance remaining in all of us—including me—that needs to be rooted out. Since everything in your life can be deconstructed, not just religion, then that means there are many aspects of your life and world where you can continue rooting out ignorance.
Basically, this is all just another way of saying to embrace your curiosity, keep an open mind, and never stop learning.