The Sacredness of Questioning Everything
The freedom to question---asking and being asked---is an indispensable and sacred practice that is absolutely vital to the health of our communities.
According to author David Dark, when religion won't tolerate questions, objections, or differences of opinion, and when it only brings to the table threats of excommunication, violence, and hellfire, it does not allow people to discover for themselves what they truly believe.
The God of the Bible not only encourages questions; the God of the Bible demands them. If that were not so, we wouldn't live in a world of such rich, God-given complexity in which wide-eyed wonder is part and parcel of the human condition. Dark contends that it's OK to question life, the Bible, faith, the media, emotions, language, government---everything. God has nothing to hide. And neither should people of faith.
The Sacredness of Questioning offers a wide-ranging, insightful, and often entertaining discussion that draws on a variety of sources, including religious texts and popular culture. It is a book that readers will likely cherish---and recommend---for years to come.
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Short review: I think the most important idea from this book is that we need to be open to questioning our ideas because we desire to be in relationships. If we are unable to question then we are unable to relate to those that are unlike us. Another very good section was on how we need to be able to laugh at ourselves and our beliefs. If we cannot laugh then we cannot really get to a point where we can look at what those beliefs really mean. It has 10 chapters, each about how to question a different area (government, future, history, interpretation, God, religion, offendedness, passion, media and language). Some chapters were better than others, but on the whole this was very good.
Longer review on my blog at http://www.mrshields.com/the-sacredness-of-questioning-everything-by-david-dark/
