The Parable of the Wrong Book

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, how can one teach faith and skepticism, and how do they interact?”

Josh spoke thus:

A student was reading the wrong book.  The student’s teacher took the book from the student’s hand and placed it in its place on the shelf.

“What’s wrong with that book?” the student asked.

“That isn’t a book we read,” the teacher said.

“Then why is it on the shelf?” the student asked.

“Because it would be dishonest to remove it from the collection,” the teacher said.

“But we can’t read it?” the student asked.

“It’s not that we can’t read it,” the teacher said, “We always have the choice to read it or not to read it.  We choose not to read it.”

“So why not remove it from the collection, if we don’t read it?” the student asked.

“Because if we remove it, we can’t read it,” the teacher said.

“Isn’t that what we want?” the student asked, “Don’t we want not to read it?”

“We want to choose not to read it,” the teacher said, “If we remove the book, we can not choose not to read it.”

“What is it we’re not meant to read?” the student asked.

“I can’t tell you,” the teacher said.

“Because I’m not meant to know what’s in it?” the student asked.

“Because I don’t know what’s in it,” the teacher said.

“Then how do you know why we’re not meant to read it?” the student asked.

“I don’t care why we’re not meant to read it,” the teacher said.

“But there might be a good reason to read it,” the student said.

“We have all the reason we need not to read it,” the teacher said, “It is a book we don’t read.”

“There might be something good we could tell people about,” the student said.

“It doesn’t matter,” the teacher said.

“There might be something bad we need to warn people about,” the student said.

“That’s not the point,” the teacher said.

“It might be a book we’re meant to read,” the student said, “It might be a book we’ve mistakenly designated to be a book we’re not meant to read.”

“We must trust it is not a book we’re meant to read that has been mistakenly designated a book we’re not meant to read,” the teacher said.

“Perhaps I trust that it’s part of the collection so that some can choose to read it,” the student said.

The teacher took the book down from the shelf.  Handing the book to the student, the teacher replied, “I trust we are meant not to read it.”