Friday, May 20, 2011

questions and answers

In the Sunday paper last week, there was a comic strip.  (The comic strips are still the best part of the Sunday paper.) The strip was simple. On one side of the strip was a middle aged man sitting behind a desk.  On the front of the desk was a sign that read, "QUESTIONS ANSWERED".  On the other side of the strip was a younger man, a twenty-something fella sitting behind a desk.  On the front of his desk was a sign that read, "ANSWERS QUESTIONED".  These are the signs of our times.  Generational, cultural, philosophical change has produced this sort of paradox in thought.  There are people who believe in the answers.  They believe that life's big questions have been answered sufficiently: by science, religion, the B-I-B-L-E, some other dogmatic system or text.  Some of them may think that they have the answers to give; in a book, a sermon, a speech, a half-hour infomercial.  They believe that the Truth is knowable and that it has all been given. Others are not so sure.