asking questions is one of the most important things we can do in life. without questions, we never learn, we never get beyond the boundaries of our own life and experience, we never expose our cherished beliefs and assumptions to testing. we become bound up in the way we have always seen and understood things, and assume that this is the ONLY way to understand things. well, with 6 billion+ people on the planet, there are 6 billion perspectives of life – who am i to think that my perspective is the absolutely correct one?
this is not to say that we have to become total relativists. not every viewpoint or perspective has equal legitimacy or value – there are some moral boundaries left – after all, not many defend blowing up tube trains or buses in the name of truth (whether they are Muslim or not) would they?
which brings me to the main point – you see, i have nothing to fear from the truth. if something is true, then i want to know it and to cling to it. i don’t particularly mind who tells me – i certainly don’t think that Christians have the monopoly on truth, only that Jesus Christ does (controversial these days, i know, but we’ll explore that more as the blog develops). so even Richard Dawkins has things to teach me about what is true, even if his central premises that God is a delusion and faith is like the small-pox virus are COMPLETELY up the spout!
if i have nothing to fear from the truth, then i have nothing to fear from asking questions. this means that:
– there is no such thing as a stupid question
– there is no question that is too hostile
– there is no question that can possibly be illegitimate.
the truth doesn’t require bombs, inquisitions or censorship to protect it – it can look after itself- the reason is simple – because truth is a person – Jesus Christ.
everything that is true is true because God made it true – even if it takes a non-Christian to discover it (like aspirin, gravity or post-trauma counselling). the problem is, people these days are too happy to stay with their own perspective (even if it appears open – for example, the relativist who says all religions are basically the same). They are all too happy to ask questions of those with a different viewpoint, but won’t ask questions of their own viewpoint. My only question to them is what are they afraid of?
i love this photo – but it may just perhaps be a tad too cynical!
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Congratulations Mark on your entry into the blogosphere!
Now, I may be walking boldly into a QI-style trap here, but didn’t Isaac Newton “discover” gravity. And wasn’t he a Christian?
sure ‘discover’ is probably the wrong word – but i’m pretty sure (and do correct me if i’m wrong) that Newton rejected the doctrine of the trinity. this means that if he was a Christian, it wasn’t in any traditional, orthodox sense.
he certainly believed in creation, though, and said this:
this should be a little unsettling for the unquestioning, dogmatic atheist, should it not?!
Yes indeed – I stand corrected. Turns out (thank you Google) that Newton was a unitarian, like Milton and Locke.