In her newest book, The Witches:  Salem, 1692, her account of the infamous Salem witchcraft trials in later seventeenth century New England, author Stacy Shiff, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for biography, makes this observation about the trials.  It was a time, she writes, "When unanswerable questions encountered unquestionable answers."
     It's a deft phrase, one that in fact captures the essence of the attitudes of many toward religion and religious dogma.  Although we all encounter unanswerable questions in the course of existence, we recoil at some of the "unquestionable" answers people propose to address them.  To pose an unquestionable answer is to say that this particular answer is beyond refutation and discussion, and that whomever voices it is sure, sure beyond any doubt, that her answer is totally adequate to respond to the question.  It is to say that, in herself, this person is the ultimate authority.
     And this, many would say, is what religion does routinely.  Countless people of faith insist that because they have a particular (and often peculiar) insight into the divine, they are correct in any assertions they make about life's mysteries.  Perhaps they do.  But how do they know?  How do they, in themselves, know that they have the truth, that they possess an answer that is beyond questioning?
     Well, many say, we have a sacred text inspired by God.  This record is fool proof.  It cannot be disputed.  And it is this text on which we base our answers.
     Fair enough.  But how do you know this?
     Here is where we confront our dilemma most acutely.  Although we can amass considerable evidence for the historicity of say, the Bible, we will still not resolve every "unanswerable" question about existence.  Likewise, while we may, on the basis of this evidence, present "unquestionable" answers about existence, we must realize that, in a sense, we remain agnostic.  We understand there are unanswerables, we understand there are unquestionables, but we do not always know, precisely, what lies in between.
     Ultimately, and either way, we walk, by faith, in mystery.  Dogma is only as good as our heart.