I think people recognize the importance of asking questions but struggle to understand at what point questioning leads to falling away from the faith (from a certain perspective). People want to know at what point something white like a question transitions over to something that is black. I believe the intentions are pure, people might be looking for the best place to plant the hedge in order to prevent sheep from inadvertently wandering from the flock.
What is that "something black?" Some people might reach the conclusion that it is doubt. The article has a section dedicated to "Questions versus Doubts" and starts off with...
Doubts can also be fueled by a sincere desire to increase understanding and faith, but now I'm getting down to people's personal definitions and semantics. The point is that I think people are really struggling to know why people are losing faith, we want to know exactly where to plant that hedge. In some ways I view questions vs. doubt as another facet to the great science vs. religion debate. We often pit them against each other but both can work together to enrich our lives.What, then, is the difference between a question and a doubt? Questions, when asked with a sincere desire to increase one’s understanding and faith, are to be encouraged.
I see this in our struggle to define apostasy as well. At what point does questioning cross the line? It's hard to tell and different people draw the line at different places... but we still want that line in the sand so we can guard against it.
I'd rather not pit anything against anything else but for the sake of argument I gave a little thought to pitting questions against questions rather than pitting questions against doubt. I don't think that it's related to the question at all, rather the spirit behind the question. For instance, the question:
Why did Joseph keep some of his polygamous relationships a secret from Emma?
(I don't want this to be a polygamy thread)
Someone might be sincerely seeking an answer to that question. They might be trying to explore their faith by seeking answers. Someone might ask that exact same question, word for word, because they feel like they've already arrived at an answer but they want to put someone in an uncomfortable spot. It can be difficult to distinguish the two, sometimes even for the person asking the question.
This might be a toss-away thread but I get the sense that leaders and members are currently struggling to establish a hard and fast point where we can say that things have "gone too far." I feel like doubt got a little maligned in the process. The real issue may be our motivations, are they inward or outward? Anyway... thanks for reading this far.
