Oct 28, 2008
Disingenuous Doubt: It’s inauthentic to ask questions with no interest in answers.
If you ask questions but you reject answers, you’re not actually asking anything. You’re just festooning tired, old propositions with trendier punctuation.
Agreed. And sometimes guilty. On the flip side, what do we make of those who care about the answers, but don’t know the litany of questions?
That’s very good…
Rather Piperesque in fact.
So true, and well put (I must admit the word “festooned” made me really happy).
Good. Very good.
Those sorts of “questions” have always irritated me.
[...] Abraham Piper has a clever line that I think describes the post-modern ethos of our day: “If you ask questions but you reject answers, you’re not actually asking anything. You’re just festooning tired, old propositions with trendier punctuation.” [...]
Was that an ironic reply, David? For that matter, is this? :-)
Speaking of the question mark as a trendy punctuation or voice inflection, anyone who has not seen it should view Taylor Mali’s “Like, you know?”.
Click on the link if you have 3 minutes. It was the most prophetic thing I’ve heard come out of a Poetry Slam. :-) and definitely on point with Abraham’s post.
Here are two quotes:
“What has happened to our conviction? What happened to the limbs out on which we once walked?”
“I implore you, I entreat you, and I challenge you to speak with conviction, to say what you believe in a manner manner that bespeaks the conviction with which you believe it; because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply ‘Question Authority,’ you’ve go to speak with it, too.
His “What Teachers Make” is also good (if you can put up with one vulgarity) but I would caution anyone beyond that.
Sorry. I must have forgotten to close some html. The link “Like, you know” still works. The second half of my comment is just blue to no purpose. … like … a question not seeking answer? Does that justify such a comment as this? :-)
Would it be fair to say God can get by with this? He questions Job, but I don’t think Job’s specific answers to the questions are what he was after. Not sure…might not apply here, but it got me thinking.
Having hard questions with an attitude of rejecting all answers is probably a good definition of doubt.
Or in some cases the answer is not quite all it should be, or the method of answering is not quite all it should be.
You just wanted to use “festooned” in a sentence, dude — which isn’t in and of itself “inauthentic”, it’s just ostentatious.
:-)
____________________
BTW, how does this hypothesis hold up when compared to the Socratic method of inquiry? That is, is a teacher who asks his students question that he knows the answers to in order to get them to think about the subject at hand (rejecting their answers when they are wrong, of course) doing something inauthentic?
BTW, I know the answer to that question and I reject all answers which are wrong.
>:-D
What precipitated your thinking this and posting this Abraham? _________________________
My wife accuses me of this often…and we know that our wives are usually right regarding our character and the dumb things we do.
A statement followed by a colon followed by a question: an effective journalism technique? :)
AMEN.
On a related note, from Gadamer’s Truth and Method:
“There can be no answer to a slanted question because it leads us only apparently, and not really, through the open state of indeterminacy in which a decision is made. We call it slanted rather than wrongly put because there is a question behind it–i.e., there is an openness intended, but it does not lie in the direction in which the slanted question is pointing.
…We cannot call them wrong, since we detect something true about them, but neither can we properly call them right because they do not correspond to any meaningful question and hence have no correct meaning unless they are themselves corrected.”
i also really like the word festoon.
it conjures up mental-image-combinations of balloons, festivals, loons, and cartoons.
As the old adage goes: Most questions are statements in disguise.
Dave
I’m with Tony here…God asks me questions all the time…many I know the answers to as well…Why might He ask me such questions? Could He be festooning tired, old propositions with trendier punctuation?
Ouch. That hurt Abe.
I think the word “festooning” is lovely. It’s so much more colorful.
Maybe people keep asking some questions because the “typical” answers are undeveloped or doesn’t bring about the correct solution…?
Molly –
It is because your home is plainly festooned with love.
And we are all alternately jealous and proud of you for it, depending on our sin nature that day.
a point very well made, abraham.
as for the modern interrogative-intonation scandal noted by myrddin, i think it not such a scandal, but only californian “upspeak” being exported to the youth of the english-speaking world. hey, we can’t help it if everybody wants to talk like us, you know?
Wow, I need to send this to some people who send me hateful email questions. Super good point!!!
Thanks, Abraham!
Rob Bell is this way…I don’t like it
The difference between Socratic inquiry and the kinds of questions Abraham is talking about is not that Socrates knew an answer, but that he was always open to an answer and to revision.
He wasn’t like the sophists.
Wow! I am amazed to firmly report that just last night I watched a 2 hour DVD overview on Greek civilization which included as a main theme the role (and death) of Socrates. I love being accidentally relevant…and am struggling to NOT include a “festooned proposition with a question mark” here.
I know one reason I (sometimes consciously) do such festooning: I talk too much and sometimes overstep conversational bounds so I deliberately started doing this many years ago…intending to soften the edges of my endless declarations. ( I do actually try to use the inserted qestions to get responses from others) So shall I stop it now. (I shall never use a casual question mark again. Aaargh.)
Speaking of writing clearly on blogs–when I referenced something I “started doing many years ago”, I was referring to the habit of festooning my statements as questions!:)
Mr. Piper, thank you once again for clarifying, in short order, the heart of the matter: “motive”.
Sometimes asking a question is a good way to start a conversation. When I dialogue with Mormons, I’ll ask them something like “What do you believe about the Bible?” for two reasons. One is that Mormons may differ on the issue in question, in which case I will listen to the response, and the other is to start a dialogue without the antagonistic tactic of saying, “You believe that the Bible is corrupted. You are a heretic.”
[...] [From Disingenuous Doubt: It’s inauthentic to ask questions with no interest in answers.] [...]