LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

It’s been said that one of the interesting traits of mammals is their curiosity. So, with homo sapien sapiens being at the top of that food chain, you’d think we’d THINK!. But sociologists are finding fewer and fewer people with questions. When it comes to the depths of religion and spirituality that should even be a greater area wherein ideas and questions flourish. But, it seems that the church has put a lid on spiritual exploration and maybe that’s why so many are leaving the church in America.

As George Barna says though, people are not just checking out of the spiritual arena, they are diving deeper into spiritual matters on their own and in smaller groups. Man must BELIEVE in something, even if he believes there is nothing.

Atheists believe in “their belief of no God“.

As Dolores Cannon wrote, “We need to open the windows of our mind and allow curiosity and the quest for knowledge to enter like a fresh spring breeze and sweep away the cobwebs of complacency. Dare to think the unthinkable. Dare to question the unquestionable.” For it is only when we look our beliefs in the mirror and ask them to justify themselves do we have true faith.

Without even consciously knowing it (I hope anyway), church and religious leaders have built a wall of condemnation around various belief structures and the mere “questioning” of any doctrine is tantamount to rebellion and being looked upon as an outside at best and a cultish heretic at worst. If there’s been a reason that science has leap-frogged over religion it’s in part because scientists are always TESTING their theorems and conclusions.

Church doesn’t allow for questions like why not Original Innocence vs. Original Sin?

Could Jesus still be the Son of God and not be born of a virgin?

Was the first church a Christian church in England three years after the death of Jesus and not a Catholic one in Rome? And, it was not started by Peter but Joseph of Arimathea. Don’t even go there!

How could a loving God come up with an idea-plan wherein 90% of His (no gender intended here) creation would burn in an eternal hell?

Just the “asking” such question will bring down fire without brimstone (because brimstone speaks of sulphur which heals our burns).

We need a lot more questions to test our faith, to discern the truth, to challenge centuries of doctrinal brain-washing in many ways. We need to begin with random curiosity but end up with an unquenchable curiosity because there really are no absolutes in this third dimension- just better degrees of truth than others.