By Rich DuBose
“They that believe that ignorance is bliss, are ignorant and have never known bliss.” —Ryan Mille
A similar adage that says, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” sounds innocent enough and reminds me of the one above.
There’s something about not knowing that draws us into a form of pseudo intelligence where not knowing is equated with knowing, and in some circles, being an anti intellectual is celebrated as the epitome of wisdom.
A website known as GainPlanners says, “According to the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, the oldest written version of the saying ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you’ dates back to 1576, in Petit Palace, by G. Pettie: ‘So long as I know it not, it hurteth me not.’ While the saying has historical roots, recent practical experience, as well as empirical research, suggest the opposite — that what you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you.
In 1954 an impressive bridge known as the Sunshine Skyway opened to convey traffic from the Tampa / St Petersburg area to Manatee County (a distance of 22 miles). The epicenter of the bridge, its highest point, was 150 ft from the water, so large ships could safely pass under it. On May 9, 1980, disaster struck when during stormy weather the 606 ft (185 m) freighter, MV Summit Venture, collided with a support column causing the catastrophic failure of over 1,200 ft (370 m) of the span. It happened at 7:38 a.m. during a microburst of torrential rain and 70 mph winds which rendered the ship’s radar unusable. “In all, six cars, a truck, and a Greyhound bus plummeted 150 ft (46 m) into Tampa Bay, resulting in 35 deaths.”[1]
Did this hurt the people who didn’t know what had happened and were driving over the bridge and plunged into the Gulf of Mexico? Of course. They were killed. What they didn’t know killed them.
Years ago before scientific research showed that smoking causes cancer, millions of people smoked not realizing they were shorting their lives.
“Sixty years ago, about 70 million Americans smoked tobacco. An estimated 42 percent of adults identified themselves as smokers in 1965, and advertisements for cigarettes were impossible to avoid. Tobacco products were stylish and healthy, manufacturers insisted, with Camel claiming its cigarettes “don’t get your wind” and Old Gold saying its were “fresh as mountain air.”
“So it came as a shock to the American public when, on January 11, 1964, their surgeon general appeared on television saying that smoking tobacco leads to disease and death.” [2]
For a time the tobacco companies tried to keep the public from knowing that smoking was harmful because they knew it would hurt their business. What smokers didn’t know not only hurt them, it killed them. People started connecting the dots, to the point that today, according to Gallup, only 11% of U.S. population still smoke.
Our Quest for knowledge
I have a scientist friend who often asks the question, “How can I know what I don’t know?” A partial answer to this is to be curious. Learn as much as you can about life, health, and learning itself. Learn how to ask the right questions and discover what it means to be discerning and critical, in a positive way.
One time Jesus told an audience, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32, NLT).
Later on, when talking with Thomas, Jesus clarified how his followers would “know” the truth, by saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, ESV).
Jesus enlarged on this by saying, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17, NIV).
When it comes to our spiritual well-being, in essence Jesus says, do what you know, and what you don’t know will be revealed to you when you need to know it
Years ago when our kids were in their teens and beginning to drive, they wanted to go visit some friends who lived about an hour and forty-five minutes from where we lived. This would be there first experience driving that far from home on their own, so we were a little nervous. The entire distance they would be driving through would take them on freeways from Camarillo (in Ventura County), to Loma Linda (in San Bernardino County). The route was through sprawling urban communities in the greater Los Angele metro area. So Linda and I felt we had reason to be concerned. If you’ve ever driven in Southern California you know how the roads can be. So we asked our son who was driving, to call us when they got to their destination.
We wanted to know they had safely arrived. A couple of hours after they left we kept thinking they would call at any time. But no call came. This was before the wide usage of cell phones, so the only way our son could call us would be for him to call from a friend’s house, or a pay phone.
After several more hours went by and we still hadn’t heard, we called the police. We were anxious parents because we didn’t know if they had made it safely. The police told us it was too early to initiate a search and to give it more time. I wonder if they would have felt the same way if it had been their kids?
Not knowing can be extremely stressful, depending upon what it is. If you are pregnant and don’t know if your baby is a boy or a girl, that kind of not knowing becomes more of a matter of curiosity than of not knowing if your child who is already born is in harms way. There are levels of knowing and not knowing that have to be sorted through as we journey through life. Some are extremely important and some are not.
God understands our daily need for knowledge and guidance, which is why he promises to journey with us.
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5, NLT)
“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14, NLT).
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California. Photograph by Justin Helm, with Pixabay.
1 Wikipedia
2 When the U.S. Surgeon General Shocked Americans by Announcing That Smoking Kills, by Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, January 11, 2025