Sunday Sermonette: Questions and Answers
Humans are practically born asking questions. They're almost the first intelligible sentences we form. Why do I have to go to bed now? Why is the sky blue? Are we there yet? Why can't I have pancakes?
Sometimes we heard fantastic answers, like the elf who sees all and reports to Santa Claus that you've been bad. And sometimes it was just the last defense of the frazzled nerve: "Because I said so, that's why. Now sit down and eat your oatmeal."
As we grew older, we learned natural explanations for most things. Your parents aren't prescient, they once were kids too. Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are stories for little children and you're a big boy now. The darkness in the closet does not conceal a bogeyman, thunderstorms are not caused by an angry god, and sickness can be spread by germs, so cover your mouth when you cough and wash your hands.
I'm the eldest of a large Irish Catholic family. Mom was often pregnant. I didn't really know how that bulge got there, but I knew God had something to do with it. One day I saw a film strip at the Museum of Science on Caesarian section. The scales fell from my eyes. It was so simple! God puts the baby inside Mommy, and she has to go to the hospital to have it cut out. I went home and told my mother she should have a zipper installed.
Once my parents figured out the source of my misunderstanding, my father explained that God made a special place for babies to come out. Well, that was much clearer. My new hypothesis was that babies pop out through the belly button.
Eventually, everything we know about the world turned out to have natural explanations. There's always a chain of physical causes and effects. It turned out that Dad was more responsible than God for my growing brood of younger siblings.
We're not always right about the precise natural explanation, but it's always natural. There are exactly zero questions once answered by natural explanations that we now know are caused by supernatural forces and entities. "Well, we used to think that this wasting disease was caused by intestinal parasites, but now we know it's caused by a gypsy curse." "We used to think that tornadoes were started by moist unstable air masses and the convection force of warm air rising, but now we know they are sent by an angry God to punish sinners."
There's a reason. Supernatural answers provide no information. They don't actually answer anything.
The questions for which supernatural answers are posited are often not valid questions at all. "Who created the universe?" is right up there with "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" It begs the question. "Why was I born?" is similar. I now know how I was born, but the question why assumes facts not in evidence.
The supernatural answers most of us grew up with - "God created the universe." "You were born to love and serve God in this life and be happy with him in heaven." - are declarative sentences, but they are devoid of information.
Christians are supposed to always have a ready answer. (1 Peter 3:15) Atheists, on the other hand, need not. "I don't know" is a perfectly valid answer to the so-called "Big Questions" like "Who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop?" It's certainly better than "God did it, because I said so."
Sometimes we heard fantastic answers, like the elf who sees all and reports to Santa Claus that you've been bad. And sometimes it was just the last defense of the frazzled nerve: "Because I said so, that's why. Now sit down and eat your oatmeal."
As we grew older, we learned natural explanations for most things. Your parents aren't prescient, they once were kids too. Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are stories for little children and you're a big boy now. The darkness in the closet does not conceal a bogeyman, thunderstorms are not caused by an angry god, and sickness can be spread by germs, so cover your mouth when you cough and wash your hands.
I'm the eldest of a large Irish Catholic family. Mom was often pregnant. I didn't really know how that bulge got there, but I knew God had something to do with it. One day I saw a film strip at the Museum of Science on Caesarian section. The scales fell from my eyes. It was so simple! God puts the baby inside Mommy, and she has to go to the hospital to have it cut out. I went home and told my mother she should have a zipper installed.
Once my parents figured out the source of my misunderstanding, my father explained that God made a special place for babies to come out. Well, that was much clearer. My new hypothesis was that babies pop out through the belly button.
Eventually, everything we know about the world turned out to have natural explanations. There's always a chain of physical causes and effects. It turned out that Dad was more responsible than God for my growing brood of younger siblings.
We're not always right about the precise natural explanation, but it's always natural. There are exactly zero questions once answered by natural explanations that we now know are caused by supernatural forces and entities. "Well, we used to think that this wasting disease was caused by intestinal parasites, but now we know it's caused by a gypsy curse." "We used to think that tornadoes were started by moist unstable air masses and the convection force of warm air rising, but now we know they are sent by an angry God to punish sinners."
There's a reason. Supernatural answers provide no information. They don't actually answer anything.
The questions for which supernatural answers are posited are often not valid questions at all. "Who created the universe?" is right up there with "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" It begs the question. "Why was I born?" is similar. I now know how I was born, but the question why assumes facts not in evidence.
The supernatural answers most of us grew up with - "God created the universe." "You were born to love and serve God in this life and be happy with him in heaven." - are declarative sentences, but they are devoid of information.
Christians are supposed to always have a ready answer. (1 Peter 3:15) Atheists, on the other hand, need not. "I don't know" is a perfectly valid answer to the so-called "Big Questions" like "Who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop?" It's certainly better than "God did it, because I said so."