Don’t Ask Questions in Church!

I recall being a wee Catholic and we had a chance to talk to a priest in Sunday School. I think I really frustrated him because I would not be satisfied with any of the BS he told us.

@Jesus: Could an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being even have a plan? Can the concept of “planning” even apply to such a being?

I know that this is the general trend for Christianity, but I just want to stick up for the theists (shocker, I know) and say that we are not all like this! I am getting ready to graduate from seminary, and will be working full time in Admissions post-graduation. One of the biggest things I say to prospective students is that if they expect to come to seminary to get all the answers to the questions they have, then seminary is probably not the place for them. If you “do” seminary properly, you should leave with more questions than you came with, and encourage the same kind of questioning within your ministry context. We are generally very skeptical of those who claim to have all the answers to questions about faith. I know that this isn’t the perception of Christians, and it’s probably not the norm either, but Christian environments that encourage questioning definitely do exist!

Christian environments that encourage questioning definitely do exist!

Sure they do, but more often or not, it is only if you accept the bullshit answers. Once you move into the realm of not easily placated, it is then you run into trouble.

Hang on!

You can’t have it both ways.

Complaining that your desire to ask questions is stifled…

“Don’t ask questions in church”

And then admitting that you dont actually even like the answers.

“…Even when you get the chance to ask a question to a pastor, the response is usually full of bullxxxx…

And it gets worse. You further accuse the person to whom you want to ask the question of not even knowing the answer…

“The church doesn’t know how to reconcile its beliefs with an often harsh reality, so instead of saying “I don’t know the answer,” they…

That’s disingenuous. Plain and simple!

Pretending as if you want to ask questions of someone you claim doesnt know and whom you wouldnt believe anyway.

It may be a generalization but there is truth to it. I can tell you from personal experience, the bible was LITTERALLY thrown at me in Catholic School, by an enraged Priest who was tired of answering my many questions. Soon after that incident they reached a point where they simply stopped acknowledging my raised hand. So I took to blurting out questions and spent many months in detention as a result. Granted my behavior was not ‘respectful’ but in my defense I felt the first volley was already thrown when they elected to shun me instead of teach me.

I was about 12 at the time, needless to say, it made a lasting impression.

@Lion IRC,

“Priests & Pastors & Rabbis would not exist if nobody had questions about God.”

Nobody would have questions about this god if priests, pastors and rabbis hadn’t made him up in the first place…and done such a shitty job of it at that.

@mkb
They are willing to entertain questions….up to a point.

But you’re out of luck if you keep pressing beyond that or aren’t satisfied with the prefabricated BS answers. They have to fall back on platitudes like “god’s plan” or “god works in mysterious ways” because they can’t admit that they don’t know, that it’s all made up or that the answer would undermine your faith (and as such their control over your life)

When I was approaching adolescence and the hormones were flowing, I began wondering what it is okay to do with a girl. I approached my my preacher and asked where do you draw the line? He said not do do anything I wouldn’t want Jesus to see doing. I didn’t take a crap for a week.

Lion IRC sez:
“What part of an oncologist’s plan really needs to involve destroying millions of cancer cells along with millions of healthy cells?”

Oncologists are human, the tools at their disposal reflect human fallibility. So unless god is also fallible then that analogy really falls short.

From here it’s a short leap to, “god has full control of these events”, making him evil or, “god has no control over”, making him limited; either way the conclusion is why do we worship him?

Please note, I am not arguing or debating with you. This should be considered a rhetorical post. I just wanted to demonstrate how this type of answer would have led to a logical deadlock. An honest “I don’t know” would have been better.

The worst thing a Priest, Pastor, or Rabbis should do is speak to knowledge they don’t have or at least preface answers as being speculation.

Too broad a brush, there, dude. Not by much, I’ll say, but still, too broad a brush.

@Julie: “Christian environments that encourage questioning* definitely do exist!”

*Some restrictions may apply. Questions which do not automatically assume Christianity to be true are not valid questions. Participants must waive their right to skepticism and logical analysis, except in regards to all other non-Christian supernatural claims, assertions, beings, and deities. Christian assertions regarding the existence of supernatural realms, beings, deities, and events are exempt from empirical evidence and proof and are therefore assumed to be true. Non-Christian participants must agree to have the burden of proof shifted upon them and shall provide empirical evidence demonstrating the non-existence of previously described Christian supernatural realms, beings, deities, and events, and just to be thorough and complete they must also provide evidence to disprove the existence of Leprechauns and Mermaids. Side effects may include headaches, dizziness, nausea, seizures, vomiting, diarrhea, itchiness and swelling, irritability, befuddlement, and severe delusions. People who are experiencing stress or may be pregnant should not use Christianity. Do not use Christianity if you work in government or with small children. Do not operate heavy machinery or voting ballots while under the influence of Christianity. Contact your doctor if you experience an erection lasting longer than four hours.

I am sure that there are preachers who encourage questioning, although I have never met one. I think a bigger problem is that they often cannot satisfactorily answer questions. If they don’t have the answers to important questions about God, why would we want to listen to them? It reminds me of the Intelligence Squared debate about the Catholic church (you can watch it on youtube)-one of the Catholics said that the Catholic church didn’t know better than the general public about a certain issue, which I believe was slavery, and Stephen Fry says that if they don’t know any better, then what are they for at all?

To me, it’s like going to a doctor who can’t properly answer all your questions about your appendix. I wouldn’t want to see a doctor who couldn’t answer basic questions and explain why things work, so when no theologian or pastor can answer certain religious questions, I think they become somewhat useless. Still, I’d appreciate a genuine “I don’t know” over hours of illogical explanations with no evidence.

I’d like to toss off..

I mean I’d like to toss THEM off..

I mean I’d like to toss THEM off a CLIFF!

[really gotta watch what I type]

🙂

Yes that is frustrating. I didn’t like the BS that I was given for years and years. I had to start “learning” all over again. Good thoughts.

Jon

@Lion IRC,

Atheists sitting at home on Sunday morning, projecting what they think is happening in church seems like a convenient (and lazy) excuse for not going to church and actually asking questions in church.

There are many, many atheists who sit at home on Sunday morning because they used to go to churches and ask questions and weren’t satisfied with the answers. Count me among them.

Do you know what happened to High Priests, Shamen, Soothsayers, etc who didn’t deliver the goods?

The mob took them and threw them off a cliff.

Must be why they’ve upgraded to mostly promising you goods you won’t get until after you’re dead.

Lion IRC

Here’s how I heard someone in the “religious world” respond to a similarly worded (and perfectly reasonable) question.

“What part of an oncologist’s plan really needs to involve destroying millions of cancer cells along with millions of healthy cells?”

I would hope that I’m not alone in thinking that this is a monstrous way to look at the loss of life and suffering in Japan. What this person is saying is that the Japanese people who die, indeed anyone who dies, deserves it and the world is made a better place by their deaths. It may be painful but it is for the good in the end.

A suitable response to this someone in the “religious world” is to ask them to examine their own answer and to see if they can eke out an ounce of compassion from it. There are other responses but I promised I’d cut down on my swearing.

@Lion IRC,
You’re still here?
Go home now. Scoot. Shoo.
When you get home sit down and read this and this.
Not that reading will have any positive effect on YOU, but it’s funny to the rest of us.

In all honesty, atheists don’t always get this one right.

Yes, some pastors/priests/churches are just like this – it’s certainly best to leave them well behind.

But this is by no means true of all pastors and churches. I’ve had some excellent and honest dialogue with, for example, Anglicans and Quakers. In my experience, these groups do not isolate questioners – not at all.

Emergent churches are also known to welcome questions – I haven’t had a lot of experience with these people – but people like Brian Mclaren seem to be full of questions themselves.

@Hamsterwheel, I see where you’re going with that, and I get the humor, but I still think that a lot of the commenters here are thinking far too narrowly about these types of environments. There are communities where all of those restrictions apply, but there are others that are far more open and encouraging of critical questioning.

This is the central frustration for those of us theists who truly want to engage in healthy conversation with people of all belief/non-belief communities: we are automatically discredited and lumped in with condemnatory and oppressive theists, and our voices are rendered invalid, or at the very best, taunted. I’ve experienced a lot of good conversation on this site, but lately, the level of snark has been a little much (and that’s saying a lot for someone who loves snark).

I have no experience with clergy, but I can’t imagine actually asking anything of a priest or minister. I mean, what on earth do you ask someone who is on the opposite side of the religious spectrum? I can’t even think of a question that wouldn’t come across as horribly rude. If you lack the foundational assumptions that go along with a certain belief system, I would guess that your questions are not going to be positively received. Even if they are, they’re certainly not going to be adequately answered.

My background was in the Seventh-day Adventist Church with my BA in Theology being from Walla Walla University and my year in the seminary being at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. By the end I was questioning the authority of scripture, creationism, and the doctrine of salvation.

In my denomination those were all taboo doubts, but even in a liberal denomination, how would someone realizing that the doctrine of salvation using any available model is completely illogical, unjust, and unmerciful be taken?

That was the final conclusion that set me out.

Christians are very hypocritical, they do exactly as they preach at you not to do and they are the biggest group of people that judge that I ever met. Not all of them are like this but I have to say that Christianity has become very corrupt..