As a child, like most, I had a natural inclination to ask questions.
However, I soon learned that my fundamentalist church discouraged questions -- particularly about God and the Bible. I was even led to believe that to question anything in the Bible or about God was blasphemous and the work of the devil.
Ironically, I now believe that the ultimate blasphemy is to tell a child that they should not ask questions...about God, the Bible, or whatever.
The freedictionary on-line defines blasphemy as:
"a. A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.
b. The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God."
What is more sacred than a child?
Who is anyone to tell a child that they should not ask that question.
To tell a child to stop asking questions is actually an attempt to kill their imagination.
Interestingly, if you believe like the fundamentalist that the Bible is literally true and infallible, you believe that Genesis teaches that humanity was created in the image of God. My Hebrew in seminary over 40 years ago was never very good, and I can't even recite the Hebrew alphabet from memory, so it is for others to debate the actual meaning of the orginal text. But I like to believe that humanity is a product of God's imagination. And if that is so, what could be more sacred about our own life than our imagination?
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