I started this blog with the premise that good questions can be more significant than correct answers. Early in my blogging, I discussed the matter of “frames” meaning the way we put our questions which to some extent predetermines the types of answers that can be made to fit. Clever framing can make all answers largely false; it can also make the answer which is actually closer to the truth of the situation in life sound silly, unfaithful, or even treasonous.

For example, “Do you want us (the United States or the nations of our supposed Western Civilization) just to surrender to the global Islamic plan to destroy us?” Framed that way, the question demands the answer, “No, of course not!” But the framing of the question assumes there is such a global Islamic plot (there is not), that all Muslim people think, live, and act in lockstep (they do not), and that Islamic is the one and only identity of people whose religion is Islam (it is not). The frame for the question is false, and so either a Yes or a No answer is predetermined to be misleading and potentially harmful to the individual, the nation, and the world. The falsely framed question also prevents positive steps toward alleviating the problems of terrorism and belligerent religious fundamentalism in our world.