The Electric Monk was a character in
Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency,
a humorous science-fantasy detective novel by the late Douglas Adams. As the
book explains:
The
Electric Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video-recorder.
Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of
washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus
saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric monks believed things
for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that
of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.1
For some, believing everything you’re
expected to believe, especially as a Christian, is all too easy. Jesus was
raised from the dead? Just one more thing the church expects us to accept. Maybe
it’s easy to believe because it doesn’t seem to matter much.
For others, believing all the things
we’re told we should is indeed difficult and tedious. God, Jonah and the big
fish, water into wine, resurrection of the dead — it’s a struggle to deny doubt
and keep on saying “I believe.” How do you keep on believing that the universe
was created in six days after you’ve taken a class dealing with earth history
or astronomy? Having an Electric Monk — even better, being an Electric Monk — might be very helpful.
Not the only doubter
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