Are we scared of asking questions?
By Default Admin User, February 10, 2009
I have heard this a lot:
“I don’t want to go to church because I don’t want to get brainwashed like all those guys in there.” This statement normally comes with a load of pretty tough questions about my faith, some of which I may have some kind of answer for and some for which I may have never even asked the question. On more than one occasion I have found myself thinking “have I ever even asked this question myself?”
While we do believe many things that we don’t understand there still remains some fundamental questions of faith that are right there every day. I have had periods where I have had to ask some big questions; Why is there still suffering? Is there even a God? Does he care for me? As I have grappled with, and continue to grapple with these, and other questions I have found that my faith has become stronger, not weaker.
Jesus encouraged his disciples to question stuff; the very nature of the way that disciples learnt from their Rabbis (let’s remember that Jesus was also a Rabbi) was by asking each other questions and debating the things that they didn’t understand.
We can’t be scared of losing our faith by simply accepting everything unquestioningly, but rather, as a community of believers we should be more honest about the questions we have of life and God.
Comments (1)
I completely agree that we should ask questions about really hard questions or else we would be stuck on Ladybird book Christianity. I read the work of atheists not because I think that they are anywhere near right but because they challenge me to understand what I believe. As the old saying goes “Still waters do not produce good sailors”.