Ignorant

What image do you get when you hear that word? Do you see some trailer-trash mom filling her baby's bottle with Pepsi? Do you see an atheist? Do you see a Bible-thumper who doesn't believe in evolution? Do you see a Klan member? Do you see a convertible with California plates driving up a mountain pass in January?

We're all ignorant about something. If I got lost in the woods, for example, I wouldn't last a day. Which is why I hike on short trails, carry a cell phone and avoid situations that could get me lost in the woods.

Yet we're all lost in the woods, I think, when it comes to religion. Walk into a typical Christian Church and ask about the Old Testament, the Koran or the Tao and you're going to get a lot of blank looks. So many wars. . .okay, every war. . .has something to do with religion. Many have had everything to do with religion. And yet we are so ignorant of everything but our own faith (and some true believers are even ignorant of their own faith).

Why is it that so many want to remain ignorant about what the rest of the world believes? Why does learning about Islam, or Judaism, or Buddhism scare so many people? Is everyone's faith so tenuous that we can't bear to hear anyone else's opinions?

I guess so. Because not only are we afraid to hear others' opinions, we really don't even want them to exist. It's not just the "terrorists" hating Christians and Jews, or the Sunnis and Shiites duking it out. Evangelical Christians and Mormons still go on missions, don't they? Catholics still like spouses to convert, or at least pledge to raise their children in the Church. We allow politicians to call America a "Christian" nation and no one says much.

I wonder what would happen if we weren't all ignorant. If, for example, everyone believed, as the Hindus do, that all religions were just different paths to God. I learned that in a survey of world religions class in college. I wonder what the world would be like if everyone learned that in kindergarten.