Questions

My most recent article, the one the Virgin Birth,  raised an interesting point in my mind, at least the responses to it did. A number of people were not satisfied with the ambiguity. They wanted a definite answer, a yes or a no. A few people even went so far as to insist that their particular interpretation was the "correct" one, whether it was that it actually happened the way they said, or that it was a mis-interpretation of a particular word, or a metaphor, or whatever particular creed they believed. For many people, and it didn't seem to matter whether they believed in it or not; they just wanted a clear-cut answer.

Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don't think life works that way. I certainly don't think that religion works that way. Of course, there are some areas in which definitives are useful, but not here. I don't think a healthy religion is about the answers. I think it's about the questions. After all, we tend to learn a lot more by asking questions than we do from getting answers.

It seems to me that many of Baha'u'llah's writings are about helping people re-phrase their questions. For example, if we look at the Kitab-i-Iqan, some of the questions the uncle of the Bab asked can be summed up as asking why the Bab didn't fulfill the prophecies. Well, the question is based on a false premise. And this is what Baha'u'llah, in a sense, points out. He shows, in the first half of the book at least, that the Bab fulfilled the promises in the same manner as all the previous Messengers did. However, by asking the question the way he did, the uncle presupposed a negative. "Why didn't He?" Simply put, He did. As we learn to re-phrase the question "How did He...", then the answer becomes self-evident.

When we spend our time arguing over pointless questions, such as the infamous "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin", Baha'u'llah reminds us to exert ourselves in more productive endeavours. "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in..." Of course, to be fair, the head of a pin does have a point, but that's beside the... point.

All this to say, it seems to me that learning to ask more meaningful questions is of greater importance than having an answer to a poorly worded one.

Aside - I was meditating on this issue the other day, struggling to put an order to my thoughts. Then, out of the blue, that wily member of the Concourse on High responsible for so many thoughts shared on this blog dropped a seemingly random thought in my head. I was suddenly reminded of the story of Jacob wrestling the angel.

Aside within the aside - A number of years ago I was invited to have lunch with the minister of a local church. As we went into the back room of the church to eat, he was visibly embarrassed at the table settings. They were all paper plates and napkins with the "WWF" logo. The World Wrestling Federation, complete with a violent image and all. Oh, was he embarrassed by this. I reassured him that it was ok. "After all", I said, "it is the only sport found in the Bible." It was because of this oblique reference to the story of Jacob that I was phoned a week later and asked to give a sermon. As you, dear Reader, know, this led to a monthly gig that lasted a few years, and even helped me meet my wife. So, yay for wrestling?

And now back to our regularly scheduled aside - Where was I? Oh yes, Jacob. So there he is, alone at night, with his thoughts. Suddenly, according to the story, he finds himself wrestling this angel. Of course, the angel is unable to beat him, so he wrenches Jacob's hip out of joint. Jacob still refuses to let go, and asks for the angel's blessing. To me, this is like our struggle with truth. It's not easy, and is often quite painful. But it is only through the struggle that we come to get truth's blessing.

No, I don't think religion is about the answers, for when we think we have the "answers" we stop looking, and the truth really is like an ocean. We can keep diving, over and over, and never come close to fathoming its depths. If we are satisfied with the first answer we get, we should not be content. We should keep looking for more answers.

While we are encouraged to seek our answers from God, and to not blindly imitate others, sometimes God gives us our guidance through others. It is this continual search that keeps us humble, and keeps us seeking guidance. And as we find the truths that are evident to others, we get a better and broader perspective of the world around us. This is why I continually talk to people who are not Baha'i about the Writings, not because I think I have anything to teach, but because I have so much to learn.

In the end, Baha'u'llah has told us to "be free to ask what you need to ask, but not such idle questions as those on which the men of former times were wont to dwell." And so I will continue to ask, and hope that the questions I ask may become better and better.