Many of us are looking for answers but they are hard to find. One reason may be that there is money being made in the answer business. Lots of people claim to have them and the water gets muddy.
Stock brokers, weather men, politicians and religious leaders come to mind. They are all in the same business: Providing answers to customers about what is going to happen next. And the more sure they are, the more money they make.
“Knowing” is the key to their businesses model.
Can you imagine a stock broker who tells her clients “We don’t know if this stock will go up or down but it’s worth a try”. A politician who says “Not sure if I can change anything – bu I’ll give it a shot!”
How about a church that answers questions about the afterlife like this: “We don’t know, but here is what we believe might happen.”
They would lose every customer they have! But the customers are not innocent either. Customers create a demand for simple answers to impossible questions. The businesses fill that demand and accept cash in return. Can you blame them?
What if customers wanted the truth, ugly as it may be? Could you be a stock broker if you said you weren’t sure? Can you start a church that doesn’t have any answers? If so, what would you call it?
The Church of I Don’t Know
At The Church of I Don’t Know we have ideas, but we’re not sure.
We sing songs like “Hey [insert god of choice here] we’re not sure if you’re real or not but we believe anyway because it’s fun and our parents did it too”. Our sermons start with “Not real sure about any of this but – here are some stories from a book!”
Our members would be few and our bank accounts would probably be empty. But we could sleep at night knowing we are giving our customers the only honest answer to most of life’s big questions…
I Don’t Know.
Recommended listening: ‘Mind Full of Stars’
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