We can presume that people are the only living things that ask "why?" Human beings are the only living things that have a hunger to know, to understand the larger picture, the philosophical mysteries. Only Gary Larson's "Far Side" would have animals asking "why?" I'm full of questions. Perhaps you are too. Children are the ones with the most questions, as their curiosity sends their minds on a constant search to know why. In this regard, perhaps I haven't outgrown childhood.
A few reflections on all of this: There's a difference between curiosity and skepticism. Curiosity is open while skepticism is doubtful. Both have their place but skepticism runs the risk of thinking too highly of itself. It has a "know it all" thread underneath. The skeptic also has to be skeptical about skepticism, asking "is this attitude and approach really appropriate?" Yet, to be skeptical sometimes is healthy - perhaps even a God given gift. When you smell a rat, it's probably a good thing to be skeptical. I have my share of skeptical queries, but I've learned to try to see the risk of having an attitude when it comes to skepticism. "Having an attitude" is never life giving, never a place of soul growth. Curiosity is different however.
This brings me to the important understanding of balance, when it comes to questions. There are lots of important balance points it seems to me. One is knowing when to admit our smallness and to embrace an appropriate humility up against the great mysteries. (That's part of being a child, and Jesus said the Kingdom is for those who come to it as a child.) The second is sticking to what the Bible says and not prognosticating far beyond.
Regarding the deepest mysteries of life - we pretty quickly come to questions of origins - "how is there something instead of nothing, and how did that something begin?" In my view, the most aggressive philosophical pursuits take us to a point where we have to admit our smallness. It's like saying, "beyond this point, we have no answers." Both an evolutionary atheist and a Bible believing Christian come to a point where they have to "just accept things" at that point. For the atheist, it's where did matter originate? Where did it come from? No matter how small the particulates, we have to ask "where did it come from?" For an atheist on the question of origins, to have a position on this is to make a statement of faith - to believe something we can't fully understand.
For the Christian, we accept that in the beginning, before anything we know as "the world" existed, God existed. We then ask, "Where did God come from?" The answer is, "He didn't come from anything - he always existed, and he is the source from which everything else comes." To accept this is to express faith. Faith is not unreasonable, it the position we hold as the result of our reason. On the matter of origins the atheist and the believer both have a point of faith. There are lots of other matters like this too - predestination and free will being one example.
On #2, what the Bible says - I find it unpersuasive when people try to create dogmatic biblical positions by assuming things that the Bible doesn't say. The bible speaks to many things, but there are also many things it doesn't cover. I think it's helpful when trying to glean from the Bible, to stay with what it says. After that, I have to say, "I'm not sure about that - God has chosen not to reveal that in the Bible." We either accept that or not. One is a position of humility which is life giving, the other a position of superiority which isn't life giving. On this topic, someone once said, "Trying to answer a lot of scientific questions from the Bible, is like trying make Moby Dick a manual on whaling and oceanography." That's not what it is, and it's not why it was written.
So "balance" is the word that comes to mind. On the biggest, most mysterious questions of life, I want to seek them out as rigorously as possible. But I have to balance that with knowing that up against the biggest mysteries, my intellect is small. I accept that there are things I will not know. That doesn't mean I don't keep seeking though.
On Biblical debates, the balance is to stick with what the Bible clearly says, and accept that there are mysteries in the space beyond what it talks about. When a position is required and the Bible isn't clear, then we're best to hold our position with a significant dose of humility.
