"It is a very common mistake that we think we’re ignorant of something because we are unable to define it."
This is a quote from an interview with Gianluigi Buffon. (I don't follow soccer much, but I know he's one of the best goalkeepers ever.)
Sometimes our definitions of knowledge are too narrow. We memorize a list and say we know it. We learn how to ride a bike and say we know how to do it. We learn a new language to a certain degree of utility and say we know how to speak it. None of that is inappropriate or inaccurate. What gets my attention is differences between types of knowledge and how we define them. Academic classes where the grade is based on multiple-choice questions hold some of the most narrow parameters for measuring knowledge. On the other hand, there's this guy Gianluigi Buffon, and things like soccer.
Much of what happens in this life we don't see. It's hard to recognize the Holy Spirit sometimes and, at least for me, to be able to sit down and say "that was definitely it." It does happen though. What we don't know is interesting, too. How many times have we acted on inspiration or a prompting and not recognized it? How often does God work through us with our cooperation, but without our conscious cooperation?
Some day, when the blinders are off and we can see everything, we'll know exactly how much the Holy Ghost was interacting with us. People who lived their whole lives without any idea of what the Holy Ghost is will be familiar with it, and they'll have some knowledge of it, even if they were conceptually ignorant of it or unable to define it in this life. Because they really weren't ignorant at all, in Buffon's sense. They were just unable to define it.
This is a quote from an interview with Gianluigi Buffon. (I don't follow soccer much, but I know he's one of the best goalkeepers ever.)
Sometimes our definitions of knowledge are too narrow. We memorize a list and say we know it. We learn how to ride a bike and say we know how to do it. We learn a new language to a certain degree of utility and say we know how to speak it. None of that is inappropriate or inaccurate. What gets my attention is differences between types of knowledge and how we define them. Academic classes where the grade is based on multiple-choice questions hold some of the most narrow parameters for measuring knowledge. On the other hand, there's this guy Gianluigi Buffon, and things like soccer.
Much of what happens in this life we don't see. It's hard to recognize the Holy Spirit sometimes and, at least for me, to be able to sit down and say "that was definitely it." It does happen though. What we don't know is interesting, too. How many times have we acted on inspiration or a prompting and not recognized it? How often does God work through us with our cooperation, but without our conscious cooperation?
Some day, when the blinders are off and we can see everything, we'll know exactly how much the Holy Ghost was interacting with us. People who lived their whole lives without any idea of what the Holy Ghost is will be familiar with it, and they'll have some knowledge of it, even if they were conceptually ignorant of it or unable to define it in this life. Because they really weren't ignorant at all, in Buffon's sense. They were just unable to define it.
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