I saw this cartoon, and it seemed to me to offer parallels to the discoveries that are sometimes made in my own fields of religion and Biblical studies.
Sometimes people go through a time of questioning which, because they have not yet jettisoned their immature black-or-white absolutist thinking, involves going from believing everything to believing nothing.
But often, what we discover after a maturer and more critical inquiry is that there is something to whatever it was we once believed – but the story isn’t entirely pleasant.
One may find that some sort of deity cannot be done away with, but any confidence that that deity has attributes such as benevolence may be challenged.
One may find that there was indeed a historical Jesus or Muhammad, but their character was not always as exemplary as you had been told, nor were their views always ones that you can embrace.
In both cases, one may be sure that one has discovered “the truth.” But which, if either, is the real truth, and which discovery is the harder one to cope with?
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