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                              %MISLEADING QUESTIONS 770321

     Misleading   questions   involve  false   assumptions
regarding  objective or subjective realities pertaining to
ways of understanding or copings,  regarding referents  of
words  or  phrases,   etc.    Such  questions  direct  our
attention away from the false assumptions while getting us
to internalize  those  assumptions.  While they ostensibly
leave us free to supply our own answers to questions, they
enslave  us  to  the presuppositions built into the  given
questions.   For example,  "What does God want me to  do?"
takes  for  granted  that  the  relationship  between  the
transcendent reality and an individual  human is  like the
relationship between the human and some transcendent other
human  after whom  the  image of God is  patterned.    The
propriety of that presumed parallelism depends  critically
upon  the  relationship  after which the image of  God  is
patterned.    If the human relationship is loving and non-
manipulative --- you have one case. If it is manipulative,
you have another case.    If God is conceived in the image
of a technocratic  legalist,   sin will follow.  If God is
conceived  in  the image of a wise lover,   reconciliation
will  follow.    The choice of  the image  determines  the
meaning of the question, "What does God want me to do?" If
God is created in the image of a wise lover,  the question
is seen as of  limited value, rather  than  as of ultimate
significance.  If  God  is created in the image of a super
technocratic  legalist,   the question takes  on  ultimate
significance  and dominates the life of  the  persons  who
internalize  the  question.   They become unable  to  free
themselves  from  the misleading nature of  the  question,
even though it drags them through hell in their efforts to
answer it.

     For  questions  to be helpful they must grow  out  of
personal   experience,    relating   to   those   personal
experiences  which are most significant and powerful.   To
disregard  those powerful experiences and focus  attention
upon  unrelated  questions  ---  is to  choose  misleading
questions.  Such questions will lead self away from self's
roots,  thereby depriving self of the nourishment of those
roots.  That which is most real to self is that which self
personally experiences.   Meaningful questions must relate
those  personal experiences to the whole world.  Too often
educators try to substitute their abstract world for those
powerful personal experiences.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
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