I live in a part of Kentucky that is defined by Karst geology. This is large sheets of limestone that have been focally dissolved by acidic water. This phenomenon results in three things that define the bluegrass region of my state:
Thoroughbred horses which thrive on the limestone water and the bluegrass
Bourbon whiskey which requires this special water
Caves which are formed when the water dissolves the limestone
On a tour of one of our caves, I was introduced to a species of fish that lives only in the depths of the caves. This species is completely blind. It simply has no eyes. It has no lungs. It has no nose. It has no ears. It lives out its life in a world without air…..without light. This fish understands its world based on the taste and temperature of the water, based on what it touches, and based on vibrations that pass through the water.
Now, imagine that you are that fish. You swim around seeking water that is the temperature, taste, and chemistry that you prefer. You feed yourself by chasing down the source of vibrations nearby. You swallow what tastes good and spit out what tastes bad.
Life is good in your world.
Then, one day, someone describes to you a warm summer evening. The sky is a deep blue. The setting sun is a rich red. It’s a little muggy. Katydids are singing. You can hear a mourning dove. There is a gentle breeze. There is a campfire and there are steaks on a grate. You are tired from the hike up the mountain to your campsite. Soon, the stars will come out. There is going to be a meteor shower tonight.
Life is good in this other world.
The problem is that you cannot conceive of that world. Your experience of life gives you no understanding of the atmosphere, the weather, the sounds of the woods, the feel of the air, the beauty of the sunset, and the glory of the night sky……..not to mention that steak. The fact is that, even if you were exposed to these things, you don’t have the sensory apparatus to detect the data that you would encounter. The facts and rules of your world simply do not apply to this other world. The experience, the science, of your underground world simply cannot handle the information of the aboveground world.
We live our lives in the physical world. All that we know……all that we can conceive is limited by our experience of our world. All that we can understand is limited by the rules of the science of our physical world. And the science of our physical world is limited to what we can sense and measure.
We are blind cave fish living in our physical world.
There is a spiritual world. It operates on a set of rules and realities that are entirely different from our physical world.
And we just don’t understand. So we do the same thing as the blind cave fish. For the most part, we go about our business. We swim around and eat what we can find. We don’t think about the aboveground world because we can’t. We lack the tools and experience. Maybe we simply deny the possibility of a sunset. After all, it is impossible………in a world without light and air…….in our cave world.
But, the fact that a sunset is not possible in my “blind cave fish” world………does not mean that such a sunset doesn’t exist in that other world. The concept that just because I cannot sense something, measure something, or comprehend something……means that it cannot exist is flawed.
This is a good working definition of hubris:
A blind cave fish………who has it all figured out.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God, Isaiah 55: 8-9, ESV
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
Paul, 1 Corinthians, 2:9,ESV