Do You Know What You CAN'T Know?

Do you know what you don’t know?

I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it’s possible, wise even, to be aware of those things that you know nothing about. That’s how a guy named Bill described his understanding of religion: he just doesn’t know what happens after we die, and is perfectly willing to admit it.
But there’s a related question which I think is just as important: Do you know what you CAN’T know?

When it comes to the question of life after death, many people, in the wisdom of humility, claim to be agnostic because they don’t really know what happens. But many have actually taken a step away from this humility of ignorance and made the claim that not only DON’T they know what happens, they CAN’T know, and can never know until they get there.

But this means they are no longer agnostic. They are making truth claims that require faith to believe – that man is and will always be limited in our spiritual understanding, and if a higher power exists it would be limited in its ability to reveal itself to man.

For his part, Bill seemed to have a good awareness of the limits of the human mind in comparison to the complexity of life and the vast reaches of the cosmos. If anything, all that we are learning through science should give us a growing appreciation not only of creation, but even more so of the Creator behind it all.

Jeremiah 32:17 reads “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” I’m not sure that Bill realized that a creator behind all of creation would also have the ability to reveal itself in a relational way to all or any part of that creation.

Nothing is too hard for God, not even getting through to the hard hearts and dull understanding of us limited humans. It might be humble and wise to admit one’s own limitations in understanding spiritual things, but it would be arrogant and foolish to think that this sort of creator is also limited in His ability to reveal Himself to us.

In short, we don’t know what we CAN’T know, so it would be wise not only to be open to spiritual things, but to humbly pursue them with all our heart.