Many professors in universities today, especially in the philosophies and sciences, tell their students to question everything. But do they really mean that? I have seen many times that the only time they actually want anything questioned relates to any God-established authority: parents, the church, government, and ultimately God himself. While on occasion they will tell others to question them, it does not take long to reveal that they don’t like their own position and authority challenged as they tell their students to challenge other authorities. This teaching to “question everything” is not a “go investigate what you are hearing” teaching, but rather a “defy authority, except me” teaching. In a Facebook group, I came across the following meme (original source unknown), which perfectly summarizes how to question things according to these professors.
I see this mentality everywhere and it’s not just the common cults of Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is well-seen throughout academia and in the Creation/Evolution debates. All you have to do to see this meme in action is to bring up a Creationist resource to an origins debate with a non-Young-Earth-Creationist. The knee-jerk reaction is that we must cite “peer-reviewed” papers from “science journals.” However, they aren’t talking about a paper that goes through rigorous investigation to get published, but rather those that only adhere to the Evolutionary paradigm, purposefully trying to keep anything out of the ring that would consider questioning Evolution itself.
John Woodmorrappe was the first to articulate this clearly to me in his book The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods. He revealed something I knew but couldn’t put my finger on. The scientists will explore and question everything in their models, except the models themselves. While a thorough investigation on radiometric dating methods deserves attention to see this in action, I am going to use the recent discoveries of soft-tissue and biological material as the case study.
In this article I found that was published literally just two weeks ago, scientists found cartilage, chromosomes, and DNA in dinosaur bones dated 75 million years old. While most of the article is about the discovery, take notice of the comments asked at the bottom:
"These new exciting results add to growing evidence that cells and some of their biomolecules can persist in deep-time. They suggest DNA can preserve for tens of millions of years, and we hope that this study will encourage scientists working on ancient DNA to push current limits and to use new methodology in order to reveal all the unknown molecular secrets that ancient tissues have," Bailleul says.
The questions they asked were, “How could this be preserved for so long?” when every hint of known biology reveals that it cannot last more than a million years. No one ever asks the more pertinent question: “Is this really 75 million years old?” Such a question is banned from the “scientific investigation” list. It is not on the “approved list,” because it doesn’t lead to an “approved conclusion.” Those who do ask such questions find out what peer pressure and blacklisting is like in academia. It usually leads to firing, non-renewed contracts, no publications, and ultimately, you will be out, for no other reason than questioning the paradigm.
What is the point of this? A critical thing about false teachings, namely cults, is that they cannot allow anyone to investigate anything outside of their own circles. If anyone did that, the searcher will find they really don’t have what they claim to have. That is why Evolutionists have to completely dominate the scientific community and silence any who questions them. They’ll never admit it, but it’s a tale-tell sign of a cult-like group.
Now, Young Earth Creationists often get accused of being cult-like as well, but what for and why? We who believe what the Bible teaches claim only one truth. That is it. It is a charge coming from the post-modern paradigm of relativism that no one has the actual truth and to claim to know any truth is to be arrogant, foolish, and cultish (but question Evolution and watch them claim that is absolute fact). But YEC is NOT a cult teaching for two reasons, among others. 1) We do not define our standards from within ourselves. We hold to a standard outside of ourselves, which is the Bible. We simply agree with it. 2) We encourage people to check things out and to investigate them. We do not insist that people look ONLY at our sources, but rather offer them for investigative purposes and to dig deeper.
The Bible-believing Christian should not fear the questions of an honest seeker. God is not afraid of those who don’t believe but who want to find the truth. The mere fact that they want the truth is evidence that God is drawing them to Himself. He is the Truth. But the dishonest doubter is not questioning because they sense something is wrong. He is questioning because he does not like what the authority is saying or who the authority is. It is a spirit of rebellion, not a spirit of examining and validating.
Yet, what the world says will free you will enslave you, and what will enslave you will free you. What the Bible says will enslave you, enslaves you. What it says will free you, frees you. When these people follow the advice to “question everything,” they actually only question a few things and swallow without question all sorts of poisonous thoughts and ideas. They never question the very things they are being fed. I see this kind of hypocrisy so frequently – people who do not practice what they preach and often accuse those who speak the truth of doing the very thing they practice. When I read The Grand Canyon: Monument to An Ancient Earth, this issue stood out. I have a hard time thinking of an accusation they laid out against those who believe the Flood account of the Bible as written that they did not actively practice in the book.
The world says to question everything in defiance of God-established authorities, but never question the world’s system or its professors or its ideals. The Bible teaches to question and test the validity of what you hear against a concrete, objective, outside standard: the only valid one, which is Scripture. I have read a lot of books and heard a lot of teachings, but I check them out with Scripture. I will not “broaden my horizons” as that is just code for having an open mind to false teachings. I do read those I don’t agree with, but for the purpose of knowing what they say firsthand so I can expose the false teachings to the church. And many such teachings are so ingrained in the church that when questioned, people will rise up to defend them against those who want to bring the standard of truth back. I have some trolls who like to stalk me regarding these blogs posts and I half laugh and half cry out of pity as they not only don’t refute me but often actually showcase precisely what I am talking about in their attempt to do so. They question “everything” that God directly stated but refuse to question what their own side says.
Last summer, I wrote a post titled Trust God, Not You, then I preached on it at a couple of churches in July. Trust Him, but not blindly. Christianity is the ONLY teaching in the world that actually teaches to not take what you hear without investigating it. We are called to give a reason for why we believe what we believe. That means we have to not merely repeat what our position is but give reason why we stand for it. Few people can do that, Christian or not. We must question everything by validating or refuting it. However, when doing so, we must not question the position of the authorities that God has established. We can certainly question what is said, but not the position. And God has only one standard for those who question Him: that you be honest about it. He is a faithful rewarder for those who diligently seek Him. But He has no obligation to give anyone who rejects Him any further evidence.
What are you questioning and why? Seek the truth and be willing to be changed when you find it.
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