{"id":5847,"date":"2017-01-21T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T11:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/01\/21\/the-evil-of-ignorance\/"},"modified":"2017-01-21T11:59:49","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T11:59:49","slug":"the-evil-of-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/01\/21\/the-evil-of-ignorance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evil of Ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is an evil state we are in, ignorant as we are of the ultimate why and wherefore.<\/span><\/p>\n

The topic of birthdays came up among some friends. I said I don't celebrate mine: my birth befell<\/em> me; it was not my doing. A female companion replied that life is a gift to which my response was that that is a question, not a given. It is not clear that life is a gift or even a good. Equally, it is not clear that it is a mistake (Schopenhauer) and something bad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Human life is a problem<\/em> the solution to which we do not know. One can only have faith that life is good, and I do. It is a reasoned not a blind faith. But that I lack knowledge and need faith is itself something evil. There are far worse evils, of course. <\/span><\/p>\n

The issue of procreation — pun intended — makes the question concrete. To procreate deliberately and responsibly is to act on the conviction that conception, birth, and the predictable sequel are good<\/em>. But that is not known given the powerful counter-evidence that pessimists provide.<\/span><\/p>\n

So again one is thrown back on faith. To need faith is to lack knowledge and by my lights this lack is a privatio boni<\/em> and insofar forth evil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Readers will of course disagree with me and disagree among themselves as to what merits disagreement. This is just further evidence that our predicament is suboptimal.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to think about the problem of evil in its full sweep you ought to include the evil of ignorance in all its forms. And you ought to bear in mind that evil is not a problem for theists alone. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/span><\/legend>\n
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<\/a>Evil as it Appears to Theists and Atheists<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>Monokroussos on "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>Merton Quotes Evdokimov<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>Suggestions on How to Study<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>What Explains the Left's Toleration of Militant Islam?<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>The Left's Central Delusion<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a>Death Penalty, Abortion, and Certainty<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is an evil state we are in, ignorant as we are of the ultimate why and wherefore. The topic of birthdays came up among some friends. I said I don't celebrate mine: my birth befell me; it was not my doing. A female companion replied that life is a gift to which my response … Continue reading “The Evil of Ignorance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,39,207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-and-evil","category-human-predicament","category-pessimism-and-optimism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}