Don’t Shoot the Questioner

What questioners are afraid of.

“I’ve been questioning the bible lately,” said Query.

Answer shot her a worried glance.

“Don’t freak out,” Query said. “I still read it. But I’ve just been wondering, why do we trust it so much? How do we know it’s true?”

“It’s the word of God,” replied Answer.

“Don’t give me your pithy answers,” Query said, and then added more quietly, “I mean, I know it’s the word of God, and I think I believe that. I just… well, I guess I’m not sure what that means, or why.”

“Isn’t the title, ‘Word of God’ self-explanatory?”

“It’s not.” Query retorted. “We just think it is because we say it all the time. But we say it without knowing what it means. At least, I don’t know what it means. It’s the word of God, but it was physically written by humans, right?”

“40 of them, over 1500 years, on 3 continents, in 3 languages.” Answer answered. “But each of those people were inspired by God to say what they did, and it all comes together as a cohesive whole.”

But Query was not satisfied. “But how do you know?” She pleaded, “And what does inspired mean, precisely? Did God whisper the whole thing in their ears, or were they just people writing down their knowledge and experiences about God, or was it something in between?”

Answer paused for a moment, thinking quietly, then said, “There are many different theories on that, and each is hard to prove. I can’t say exactly how it happened. But there are several books on the canonization which offer some compelling—”

“Aha!” Query shouted in sudden triumph. “There it is. You can’t give a straight answer. If you don’t know, you should have said so in the first place.”

Answer shook his head. “You asked a question. I give you a short answer and you say I was being too pithy. I started to give a long one and you say I’m not being straightforward.”

Query was silent.

Answer continued, “There is much I don’t know. And what I know is enough to keep me from having a heart attack every time I encounter a question without an easy answer.”

“I guess it’s okay if you don’t have all the answers,” said Query, “I just want to ask questions without you looking at me like I’m an alien.”

“An alien?”

“Well, you know what I mean. You start asking too many questions and everyone’s all ‘sister Query is questioning her faith; she’s on the slippery slope’ kind of stuff. I’d rather just pretend not to have any doubts.’”

“Doubts do not vanish by pretending. Therefore, questions are good. But one who questions should question because they seek answers,” Answer said.

“That’s obvious,” said Query.

“Perhaps,” said Answer, “but there are questioners who question only to question, and will refuse all answers, even good ones. It’s absurd, like a starving person who refuses food.”

Query nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll try to avoid that. In the mean time, go on about the canonization.”

“I’ll start with what I don’t know,” said Answer.

This was the beginning of a long friendship between Query and Answer, in which Query promised not to hide her doubts and Answer promised not to overreact or pretend to know more than he did.