{"id":645,"date":"2023-02-04T21:11:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T21:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=645"},"modified":"2024-07-21T16:43:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T15:43:57","slug":"inquiring-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=645","title":{"rendered":"Inquiring Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sermon #68 (5th February 2023 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve given today\u2019s service the title \u2018Inquiring Minds\u2019, largely as a nod to The Inquirer,<\/em> our Unitarian magazine which comes out once a fortnight. We always leave a little pile of copies out in the foyer \u2013 enough for everyone \u2013 and you\u2019re welcome to take one home for free. Or, as I\u2019m sure the editor and the Inquirer board would like me to remind you, you can subscribe to receive it direct to your doormat or indeed view electronic copies online at inquirer.org.uk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Inquirer<\/em>\u2019s first ever issue was published on 9th July 1842 which apparently makes it the longest-lived non-conformist paper in the world. The title underlines something about the very nature of our Unitarian movement, I reckon, and our self-understanding as Unitarians. We think of ourselves as people who ask questions, who dig deeper, people with Inquiring Minds. <\/em>This curiosity \u2013 or, alternatively, this refusal to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of the world and how it works, this refusal to be fobbed off with pat answers or to follow the herd \u2013 this attitude is right there in the origin story of Unitarianism and baked into our (metaphorical) DNA. Think about old Theophilus Lindsey, who founded this congregation nearly 250 years ago, and who first left the Anglicans because he could not in good conscience just go along with the list of beliefs \u2013 the \u2018thirty-nine articles\u2019 of the church \u2013 that he was supposed to sign up to unquestioningly. For Unitarians, it seems to me, such commitment to questioning \u2013 and, like Lindsey, following through<\/em> on the sometimes-disruptive implications of what we discover as a result of our inquiry (he gave up a secure life with the Anglicans to found the first Unitarian church) \u2013 such a commitment to asking questions, seeking deeper truth, and following wherever it may lead, is a central aspect of our faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication that actually sparked this morning\u2019s choice of theme though was this one: \u2018The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity\u2019 by Robin Ince. I read it a few weeks ago and immediately found myself wanting to press it into people\u2019s hands evangelically. But, in truth, I first approached it with a little bit of caution. For years Robin Ince \u2013 who started out as a comedian himself, though he intermittently claims to have retired from stand-up, and he’s created his own hard-to-define niche in science communication as the voice of the non-scientist alongside his scientific mates (most notably Brian Cox) \u2013 for years he put on a run of Christmas stage shows at the Bloomsbury Theatre, featuring comedians and scientists, called \u2018Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People\u2019. These shows were widely lauded and featured loads of comedians and thinkers I would have loved to go and see. But at that time \u2013 as the title \u2018Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People\u2019 indicated \u2013 many in this first wave of science-loving comics seemed to position themselves as being actively anti-religious, vocally scornful of religious people, caricaturing us as being (necessarily) anti-scientific and (implicitly) a bit dim. So although the line-up of these shows looked great, and many chums raved about them, I never went \u2013 I\u2019m not a \u2018Godless Person\u2019 \u2013 and I didn\u2019t want to go to a party where I wasn\u2019t welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in recent years, it seems that something has shifted. I noticed that in 2018 the long-running show changed its name to \u2018Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People\u2019. That\u2019s more like it! It seems to reflect a more nuanced view \u2013 an understanding and acknowledgement that there is no reason at all why science and religion have to be in opposition to one another \u2013 and indeed I might add that scientists haven\u2019t got a monopoly on curiosity. I used to be a scientist of sorts, by the way; I studied physics and medical engineering in my twenties and I was still working as a researcher in radiological sciences at the time I first wandered into this church about twenty four years ago. So this notion that the scientific and religious worldviews are incompatible has always seemed silly to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking questions and being curious \u2013 being interested<\/em>, as the book title goes \u2013 about the world around us (and the world within <\/em>us, and within others<\/em>) is a vital part of a faithful and flourishing life. Not just questions about science and nature of course \u2013 questions of philosophy and theology, politics and economics, sociology and psychology \u2013 asking \u2018why?\u2019 and \u2018how?\u2019 and \u2018what if?\u2019 Let\u2019s not take things at face value (or at least let\u2019s not do that by default) but instead be ready to dig a little deeper \u2013 not as a kneejerk naysayer making flippant or bad-faith objections for sport \u2013 but in service of the truth and a more holistic understanding of the world and our place in it. There\u2019s a place for healthy scepticism, for sure, but sometimes Scepticism can become a defensive \u2013 even hostile \u2013 position which, paradoxically, closes us off to whole realms of human wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as Robin Ince said in the reading I just gave, it is important to be open to answers that might surprise us, insights that might shake our worldview, that might require everything else to shift round a bit to integrate each new understanding. If we genuinely seek the truth then we must be willing to question ourselves at least as much as we question others, asking \u2018Why do I believe what I believe? What foundations am I standing on? And why do I favour them?\u2019 <\/em>The path of curiosity and inquiry is very often a path of transformation; as we change our minds we change our very selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our first reading by Victoria Safford, which Hannah read for us earlier, the small child asks \u2018Why was I stung by bees?\u2019 I wonder how you would have responded to her question. Safford makes a valiant effort to answer but in the end all of her responses are unsatisfactory. It\u2019s unanswerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it seems to me that many of life\u2019s biggest questions are similarly resistant to a satisfying answer \u2013 life itself is complex and mysterious (and a bit random) \u2013 often there isn\u2019t a clear-cut chain of cause and effect. Which is not to say we shouldn\u2019t keep asking the questions! Let\u2019s not give up too lightly. But let\u2019s bear in mind that we\u2019re not always going to come to a satisfying answer. We will probably need to come up with a working hypothesis, a provisional answer, and keep refining it over time. Which of course is what scientists do! Many people have a false sense of scientific certainty; good sciences is rooted in inquisitive humility and depends on a willingness to think again and adjust. It can be psychologically unsettling to stay in this space of uncertainty \u2013 we might feel a yearning for conclusive resolution and definite answers to these questions of life, the universe, and everything \u2013 but let\u2019s resist the temptation to claim greater certainty about our answers than is strictly justifiable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most crucial religious question is this: How are we going to live in the not knowing? And of course I\u2019m not going to offer a simple answer. It\u2019s the question that lurks in the background, inevitably, each time we gather, and (to misquote Rilke) it\u2019s the work of a lifetime to live into the answer. So let\u2019s come back here next Sunday, and the next, to this gathering of inquiring minds, and keep on wrestling with these questions together. And to close I want to repeat the quote from M. Basil Pennington which I shared for our time of meditation. He said: \u2018There are questions, lots of questions. And it is good to live in the question. A pat answer is closed, it is finished; that’s it. It goes nowhere and leaves little room for hope. A question, the mystery, opens the space for us. It is full of possibility. It gives hope of life and ever more abundant life. Our faith\u2026 is full of questions. And therefore full of life and hope.\u2019 May it be so for the greater good of all. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An audio recording of this sermon is available:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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