Why?

There is no other question in the English language (and I suspect other languages as well) that is more powerful or more epitomizes human nature.

Why? The very question rings with our essence and speaks to how humanity has managed to develop the way it has. We are curious creatures and this question must always be asked and there is nothing too sacred for it. Nothing.

Children are amazing at asking this question. They live for this question. Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why is the sun hot? Why does it rain? Why does poop smell? The list never ends. There is no creature on this planet that comes even remotely close to human beings in their desire to learn and to answer questions.

What I find interesting is the number of people, organizations and nations that absolutely detest the question even though it seems to be hard-wired into our DNA. Frustration starts early enough with parents. We often get frustrated by the question, not so much for the question itself as our inability to fully answer them or the simple, overwhelming volume of them.

Once my son asked “Does God have bones?” To which I honestly had to respond “Well gee I don’t really know”. I eventually told him that God was spirit and as such had no bones. This felt a little like a stretch because I immediately started thinking about Jesus and the incarnation and the hypostatic union (the dual nature of Christ as fully human and fully God and the nature of that unity) and I could not very well enter into a conversation with a 3-year-old about these things. Christ had bones. So if Christ and God are one then God has bones too…and he also does not. Terribly unsatisfying to a 3-year-old (and an adult for that matter).

Why, why, why?

This is the common lament of the Psalms and of humans everywhere. We lift it to the skies and thrust it into the lives of the people around us.

I am not an historian so I have no idea if the question has always raised objections but I suspect it has. Lately I think I have simply become more attuned to the protests I hear in response to the question and frankly I do not like them.

I think that people and governments etc. do not like the question because there is an accountability wrapped up in the response, especially when the question is about motives for acts. We ask our government why they would choose to fund one initiative and not another – in response we often get defensive or evasive answers. Answers that suggest the following unspoken feeling of “None of your business, just trust us”.

Negative responses to the question of why are designed consciously or unconsciously to condition people to stop asking the question. We must recognize and resist this.

There is no part of human existence that should not be completely open to the question of why and this includes faith. Any faith worth more than two cents should be able to handle the question of why and yet so many representatives of faiths and expressions of faith discourage such questions including within my own Christianity to varying degrees.

I think one of the reasons the question is discouraged is because we don’t like the possibility of having to respond with “I don’t know”. Such a response is reasonable when it is the truth and frankly welcomed. Most of us can sense right away when someone posed with the question of why slips into BS mode, it is quite obvious usually as they work linguistic gymnastics to dance around the response.

We don’t like to say “I don’t know” because it makes us feel stupid. We want to know (that’s why we ask the question why as much as we do). Not knowing somethings makes us feel insecure, empty, weak, frightened and of low value. The entire Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis has a lot to do with this incorrect feeling and the temptations that result.

We do not gain value from knowledge so a lack of knowledge does not reduce our value. With this in mind one would think honesty would reign supreme and people in the know would respond with the info requested and the people who do not know would respond accordingly as well and everybody would be fine and not react with judgement and/or defensiveness.

Now back to faith (you knew I had to go there) – we must feel free to ask God why. In fact in many places God encourages us to ask why? Of course God never promises answers we will understand (see the book of Job) but we are encouraged nonetheless to ask the big question because it is often in the asking and seeking that we grow, not so much in the attainment of the answer. For a great example of this think back to your last calculus test (I know that could be a long way away). Did you notice that most of your marks in the test had to do with the process of coming to the answer and not the answer itself? In fact it is possible to get every question wrong in a calculus test and still coming away with a passing grade. The journey matters. It matters in life and it matters in faith as well.

One of the areas of faith we have often failed to challenge with why is when it comes to rules/regulations and laws. Often when we build up the courage to ask the response knocks us back down again: “why is Jesus the only way to God?” “Because the Bible says so…” “Why are there more than 600 rules in the Bible?” “Because there are…” “Why is the Bible the rule of faith and arbiter of truth?” “Because the Bible says so.” “But why do you believe that?” “Because I do now stop asking so many questions.”

The response “because the Bible says so…” is radically unsatisfying on multitude levels and betrays one or both of two possible realities – the person does not really know the answer and does not want to admit it or they simply don’t feel you are worth the time to explain it to. The first reality is perfectly ok but one should be willing to admit that. The second possibility, that of worth, is not ok given the point of scripture and the Gospel.

After all if God invites questions of why certainly we should as well.

Frankly if people, organizations of faith or otherwise become evasive when the question is posed I would suggest you move on. Life is too short to have to wrestle responses to such an important question.

I would like to remind you however that the point of the question is usually not the answer. In most cases the answer to the question will rarely be satisfying (aka don’t be annoying and rude to people honest enough to tell you they don’t know). It is the journey seeking the answers to the questions of why where the real value lies.