Re: Two modes of investigation - you chose
Actually religion, as experienced by the majority of people the world over, usually suggests that you shut up, pay attention, do as you're told and let people a bit further up the hierarchy do any thinking in the unlikely event it is deemed necessary - perhaps you're just thinking of the CofE.
In any case, its only fairly recently some religion has settled for "why" at all. Most of them had a good deal to say - nay, insist - on having the definitive answer to the "how" question for most of mankinds history, with dubious consequences, usually involving fire, metal or a combination of the two, for anyone with the temerity to disagree. Funnily enough, every Friday a bunch of people turn up at my door, handing out leaflets that seem to dwell rather more on "how" than "why", couched in terms so simplistic I'm surprised they don't actually feel embarassed at handing them out.
Even when they do stick to more "why" themed questions the answers they come up with on issues like morality don't usually work without their particular brand of "how" being correct. An awful lot of the explanations of why not to do things revolve around $deity not liking them for unexplained reasons, and the punishments that will be handed out. When those questions are gone, they don't seem to do a spectacularly good job of whats left at all. So in the case of religion, perhaps "why" should be more like "why bother".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
