It describes my own personal experience. No, no one ever explicitly told me "asking hard questions is a sin". But I was sure made to feel like it was, and while maybe that wasn't consciously intended, I suspect it kind of was intended, at least at a less than entirely conscious level
> Most people seem satisfied with an extremely shallow understanding of things.
I'm shocked by the number of professionals who have extremely shallow understandings. Pick a mental health diagnosis at random. Go looking (e.g. on PubMed) for scholarly debates over the scientific validity of that diagnosis – seek, and ye shall find. But, how familiar is the average psychologist or psychiatrist with those debates? In my experience, many who make a whole career specialising in said diagnosis, have never bothered to even go looking for them
I hear this sentiment a lot, but having been in all sorts of church, para-church, and religious education settings, I've never once seen it for myself. I have stumped many tutors in my life, but not once was I chastised for "sinning." Not that my experience is worth more; it's just still very foreign to me.
What I have seen is a severe lack of religious knowledge in most adults. For whatever reason, many of these people don't have the drive to understand things for themselves. This is strange because if you genuinely believe in what you preach, it should be one of the most important things to get right.
I suppose this isn't much different from other aspects of our current culture, though. Most people seem satisfied with an extremely shallow understanding of things.