Agnosticism

Etymology: Greek agnōstos unknown, unknowable, from "a"(without) + "gnōstos"(known,)

I am tempted to become an agnostic. Not in a religious sense, but in a social way. I am almost convinced that I should treat those who are dedicated to being unknowable, as irrelevant and unworthy of effort. People who commit themselves to treating God as though he were unknowable and therefore irrelevant, unworthy of searching out, inevitably become like their God: incomprehensible. Those who refuse to admit pain or doubt or wrestle with the Knowable One as a means of coping become unknowable themselves.

Those who hide from pain and their wounded souls in a delusion of respectable ignorance and worldly hedonism are not the sort of people who will be able to help anyone in any struggle. Nor will they receive any real help. It is too uncomfortable to dress their wounds, so they are allowed to fester. They make knowing them pointless, without the benefit or comfort of any hard-found truth being traded back and forth. They are unwilling to hear, unwilling to loosen their grip on the philosophy that is enabling them to survive in this very moment.

I bet they hurt way worse than I do, though they my not know it. And I bet they will for all eternity, when all the remedy to their life’s pain is gone, a cure left behind in a bottle on a shelf, unused. I will drink the remedy. I wish I could share it. I wish I could help, but no one can, not even God if one refuses to seek him. I guess I’ll wipe the dust off my sandals. I guess someone has to populate hell, even if they are people I know and love.

I am considering becoming an agnostic, forgetting about people I love who refuse to diligently seek the One who never stops making himself known. I am considering it. So far, I cannot forget them. Their speech seems completely irrelevant and yet I love them. I wish I could help. I wish they would change. I wish I could forget them. One day I will. That is part of the cure. But that day is not yet.