Why?

Lennon is 3 1/2 and has been in his "Why" phase for awhile now. At times it's seemed an interminable phase, but lately it's taken on a different tone for me. Perhaps I've realized before, when Maggie went through the same phase, and had forgotten, but the question "Why?" is not asked as a reflex, nor even as a request for the facts and figures of how things work (although I do often answer it as though "How?" has been asked, instead of "Why?"). It's a challenge to the status quo. I'm convinced that when my children ask me "Why?" they're really asking me, "Why should it be so?" I'd like to adopt that angle as my own.

In a way, it's the same as the Aquinas adage that I've discussed elsewhere on this blog. The important thing about a child's question, though, is that it entertains the endless possibility of imagination and creativity. This is the quintessential "outside the box" thinking--because no box exists for a child. So here's to being childlike in my standards for information. No, that's not true.

I'm talking about religion here. You say the Bible is the literal word of God. Why? Why do you know this to be true? You say that there is no God. Why? You say that there is only one right way. Why?

The goal is to get down to the core. Do you know this because someone else told you this? Do you know this because it feels right?

Here's the truth: nothing about God is known. But we people can't deal with ambiguity. We need the comfort of being assured that we're right; being special because we've got it figured out. From that special position comes our perceived right to judge and damn others, which makes us feel good. We don't understand God, but we feel better if we can create a reality in which others are wrong. We've all missed the boat completely, but we continue to literally and figuratively, directly and indirectly, kill for the sake of showing how right we are. We are all Cain. The punchline is that we're all Abel, too.