Rarely has there been a belief so ridiculous or contrary to the Scriptures that, once it becomes popular, some Christians haven't attempted to incorporate it into the faith. Of all the bizarre mismatches, though, none is worse than the attempt to harmonize what individuals observe, sense and try to measure with the instruction handed down by our learned spiritual superiors. Trying to merge proper belief with critical thinking is simply impossible. Nazism fits better with our theology than free thought.

Though in my childhood I was raised on thinking and the discussion of ideas, one day I found myself a born-again nonthinker who saw, immediately, an impassible abyss between what I now knew because I was "instructed" and all the so-called "knowledge" that comes from rationality and free thought. Within days of my new birth, someone gave me the article "Seventh-day Darwinians", by Clifford Goldstein. This article confirmed me in my convictions that the "truth" I was being spoon-fed was totally sufficient. I could stop thinking at last! Soon my new favorite phrase became "rational smashinal". The church's leaders have said it. I believe it. That settles it.

I realize some people still argue for rational thinking. Yet rational thought is still only a human endeavor, and as such it comes burdened with all the prejudices, foibles, fears, and presuppositions of anything human. However much I respect rational thought and stand in awe of those who actually think for themselves, most thinkers are just as bigoted and dogmatic (even worse, practical) as historical critics and we all know how hell-bent "those people" are.

Now, it used to be that, for Adventists, clear thought was a threat from the outside. But unbelievable as it seems, now, even some in the church have accepted thinking. They claim God wants us to actually use our cognitive skills to learn about the earth he created and to contemplate his plan of salvation. Obviously these thinkers are misled. If God had wanted people to commune with him and be his friends, he would have given man a real mind to use.

Why, some of these people actually hold argue that it's okay to think and to stretch others' thinking about the teachings of the Bible. For example, one so-called "thinker" dared to suggest to me that somewhere in Deuteronomy there is a version of the Ten Commandments that doesn't mention creation. I told that person to stop thinking! He was going against everything we have been told. We are to simply ignore questions on topics where our enlightened truth-givers have already determined the "truth"! More than one of these "thinker-type" folk refuse to accept the obvious truth that God's physical creation fits the simple pattern described by a set of selected texts written by people who believed the earth to be flat.

What amazes me isn't so much that people can believe in thinking (after all, I used to), but that those who do so still want to be Seventh-day Adventists. I can respect someone who, believing that using one's mind is good, rejects the Adventist church entirely. I have no respect for those who think they can meld the two.

For anyone, especially young people, struggling with these issues, I say: Stop thinking! As long as you stick by the pre-selected Bible texts and quotations from Ellen White and stop thinking, you will not go wrong. Those in the church who have already decided to keep on thinking can find plenty of other churches outside ours. And to those teaching in our schools who believe in rational thought and yet take a paycheck from the church, I say: If you honestly reject closed-mindedness in favor of thought and open discussion of belief, turn that honesty into integrity and go where you won't have to cloak your views under the anfractuosities of language.

I speak, I believe, for at least a thousand Seventh-day Adventists when I declare that whatever may be demonstrated by careful observations, if it does not agree with accepted doctrine I will never support it. And for those who want to speak up with a new thought now and then, much less routinely, you'll have to fight us for every extra minute of free thought.

Remember that while ignorance is not necessarily bliss, if you just accept the gospel and science according to our learned theologians, and stop studying for yourself and asking questions, you at least won't feel ignorant.

Pmindles Phaloer is a reader of the Adventist Review and the Adult Sabbath School Study Guide.