Read an awesome post this morning by Paul Graham this morning called What You Can't Say, which is about taboos and heresy. Graham is writing as a hacker and venture capitalist looking for to uncover potentially interesting and profitable ideas that are being overlooked because they go against the conventional wisdom. His essay resonates with me as I'm dealing with a controversy in which my wife and I are the heretics, though not in a way you might expect (I might tell you off the public web if you're interested).
<!-- SUMMARY_END -->
Ask the hard questions. Turn over that rock and look at the bugs, and you might find something interesting. I guess that's what the article boils down to for me. Don't know if I'm getting out of it what Graham put in it, but what I think of after reading it is "Seek and ye shall find... something."
Learning to ask taboo questions was a big factor in my faith journey. I always used to get worked up when people posed tough questions that challenged my faith. At one point in my late college years, I realized the reason was not only that I didn't know the answers, but that I hadn't even been willing to let myself ask the questions.
After that I resolved to ask all those heretical questions of my pastors, not to trip them up or throw them, but because I wanted to understand more. Now I find myself in a strange nether-world between fundamentalists who think you should never admit any doubt, and liberal Christians or secular humanists who are all about asking questions ("Question Everything") but who don't believe in seeking answers. "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" is a good way to put it. Neither side is a good fit, and I don't really feel accepted anywhere. Oh well, always been a geek, and hope I'll always be one.
Another place where I find myself asking heretical questions is when I'm in a group in conflict with another group. Sometimes I'm compelled to ask people my group questions that I expect the other group would ask. What if they're right about this and we're not? What if they have a point here? It's partly a strategy to try and anticipate challenges and attacks, but it's also an attempt to stay humble and to remember that the other side is composed of real people with real feelings.
This faith and peacemaking stuff is totally not where Graham went with his essay, though. Or maybe not. Whatever. But you should check it out, it's a good read, it'll make you think.