Fools dwelling in ignorance,
yet imagining themselves wise and learned,
go round and round in crooked ways,
like the blind led by the blind.

Katha Upanishad - Part 2, Verse 5
Swami Paramananda
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I stumbled upon this quote and wanted to expand on yesterday’s post regarding the, “Who are you to be such a committed advocate of a faith that’s so complex that there’s no way that someone like you could understand it?”

The question doesn’t just apply to religion, but any topic, really.

I see it in my personal life, professional settings, during Covid. People are willing to take a stance on a topic whether they have a wealth of supporting evidence to back it up or not.

That fascinates me.

Belief systems for many people seem to be built on a shaky foundation of buzzwords, phrases, platitudes, or things they heard from someone else. The best part is they don’t even bother to further reinforce this foundation by looking into their stance any further. But challenge them with a few probing questions and they’d rather dig their heels into the dirt of ignorance and double down on enthusiasm for their “team” than search for truth.

Me? I’m a truth seeker--and that’s truth with a lowercase ‘t,’ thank you very much ;)

My approach to an argument (or stimulating conversation with differing views, as I like to call it) is this: “I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just asking you to show me why you’re right.”

I’m more interested in finding out why you’re holding onto your beliefs than proving one of us “right” or “wrong.”

Most people aren’t even willing to play the game, though. It’s deflect or shut down or point behind you and look over there.

Why are people so afraid to claim ignorance about a topic they’re unknowledgeable over? Never made any sense to me, as I have no trouble taking an at least partially neutral stance on a topic on which I know little about.

Maybe I’d just rather stand my ground in a field of ignorance than wander round and round like the blind leading the blind.