What is it about the Christian faith that wants to discourage critical thinking?
I don’t think it is quite the issue everywhere that it is where I live. As with many intellectual trends, it follows geographic lines. In the south, there is this attitude that everything about our faith lies in tradition. Seminarians and scholars can point to many a historical council and creed to cite the reasons they hold the theological positions they do, or why they believe that the Scriptures hold their current canonical structure, or why you should or shouldn’t say a certain thing, vote a certain way, etc.
Everyone has an opinion, and I love that about our culture. However, when opinion is raised to a level it shouldn’t be and labeled as “doctrine,” we have issues. When another Believer disagrees with you, expresses their opinion, and then labels their opinion as a “conviction,” it is supposed to have some hallowed quality at that point: we wouldn’t dare offend another Believer by questioning his/her “conviction.”
Well, I have this problem: I enjoy offending people. Because I see Jesus offending all sorts of people in the Scriptures. Further, as Karen recently pointed out in a conversation, He wasn’t ever offended that I can think of. Righteously angry once or twice, but not offended. Funny that we are so easily.
The true poison that this has introduced into our faith, however, is that we lose the ability to think critically and analyze something objectively. We mindlessly believe whatever has been taught us, because it is what a given community or a given family has believed for generations. The result: denominations and dogmatic theology and other worthless things that cause division and hatred…you know, all those things Jesus didn’t want.
Must we be products of our education and tradition without examining things with an open mind, accepting the possibility that there may be good and bad in what we hear? Must we approach our faith with stupidity? Somehow, I can’t believe that’s God would have wanted when He created intellect.
Just a thought.
Oops…I guess I’m not allowed to have those as a Believer, am I?