if you're gonna be stupid you had better have a dang good reason

I think that there is a difference between someone being completely ignorant of something and someone being willfully ignorant.

I run into this a lot; names, places and incidents have been omitted for...mostly my protection.

Some people when they give you that blank stare, or an answer that just seems retarded...it's because they honestly have no clue what you're talking about or what they're talking about. It isn't their fault because they don't know any better.

Take faith for example, young Christians may make an ignorant comment about scriptures, or about spiritual matters in general and it's because they've either been taught that and don't understand they need to look for themselves, or they're taking their world view and applying it to the bible, and things don't add up. Then you've got Christians who do know better, they've been seeking after Christ for a very long time, they know to search the scriptures, and to petition God and yet when they bring up subjects they shouldn't they develop foot in mouth disease.

These things go on outside of spiritual matters too. People will WILLFULLY ignore facts, or will not go searching for facts themselves and instead go straight to someone else after hearsay and point a finger. Why are they being willfully ignorant when the facts are a few steps or keystrokes away? This makes me want to do nothing more than beat said ignorant person over the head. The naturally ignorant person can be aggravating, but you eventually just shake their head because they don't know any better.

I guess the question I have to ask myself is when a person moves beyond naturally ignorant and into willfully ignorant? I could guess as far as age and maturity it hits somewhere in high school after puberty (personal opinion, and no im not talking about the age of accountability here). In the work place I'm not sure, but there is surely an amount of time where you can begin just blaming yourself and your unwillingness to actually learn anything new or do things differently instead of blaming the fact that you don't know what your doing or don't understand how things are done.

How often am I willfully ignorant?

At this point...you become more of a roadblock.

(the message)Romans 14:22-23:
Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong.