How to Ask a Question About Scripture

In my last article, I wrote about how to answer a question. 

But a bigger barrier to any sort of Q&A, especially on the Internet is “How to Ask a Question”.  Moderating a Christian Q&A website that amounts to a mishmash of computer programmers, random people who stumbled upon the site from google and down-right hostile Internet trolls, makes for a lot of interesting questions. When your topics ranging in topics from an Old Earth Creationists treatment of extraterrestrial life to Young Earth Creationists explanations for Noah’s Ark. Some objective criteria must be applied to what constitutes acceptable questions.

So, start with the simplest possible question you could be asked, you might just as easily get this question from an inquisitive child while teaching Catechism as you might from an Atheist trying to get your goat.

This is too vague, there’s a flood every year, in fact if the sun rises tomorrow, there will be a flood in my back yard. Please try again.

This question, thrown in the wilderness of the Internet will elicit as many responses as there are Christian denominations.

Now, you’ve gotten down to the meat of the question.  If you can’t ask God, ask what the Catholic Church teaches on the matter.  This is why we have faith and believe, like Chesterton, that the Church is a “Truth Telling Thing”.

But, it’s not the whole question because it misses some important points that you couldn’t have known when asking the question in the first place. It is a yes or no question, which has a generic answer; an answer that works for everything from Genesis Chapters 1 through 11.  The answer is simply unsatisfactory because when you hear the answer is “yes”, you naturally want to ask nine thousand questions about it.  Excluding questions about the ark and familial relations, these are some famous follow-up questions:

The first question (Fig 4) pre-supposes that the Church has some interest in archeology and sends out Indiana Jones to investigate matters of faith. The second question (Fig 5) assumes that the unsatisfactory “yes” answer in the primary question (Fig 3) can be expounded upon and still be a matter of faith.  The third question (Fig 6) makes it seem as if the Church herself has an opinion on specific mythologies outside of her roots. 

The main problem with most questions about the scripture, at least those asked today, is that they’re like a scientific straw sucking the life out of your cup of faith. 

So, before asking a question, whether your throw it out to the wilds of an Internet forum or your ask your spiritual director, consider whether

1. Would a negative answer negatively affect your relationship with God?
2. Would a non-answer leave you more confused than you were before?
3. Would a positive answer satisfy you in a lasting way?

The answer to this question will improve you’re your relationship with God, open your eyes to the Truth of God’s love for us and, if it doesn’t do it immediately, it will eventually satisfy you.