Also, what is there to study? I am sincerely asking. The text in the book is, if I may use a tautology, the text in the book.
Quite a bit and it's much more interesting than I imagined! The amount of interconnection and reference across thousands of years of text is fascinating. The historical aspects and context alone got my interest when I first started attending again. The preacher at the church where I first started back was very good at framing lessons from the history of the time, putting the events in the context of the day. A lot of that context comes from history outside of the Bible itself, from the work of many historians at archaeologists working to piece together history.
One time, we were reviewing a lesson that talked about this bronze snake that Moses put on a pole that people could look to in order to be healed from poison. I thought that sounded like an familiar visual...a snake on a pole for healing so I went and looked it up. A later story references a King who had the bronze snake destroyed because the people had begun worshiping it as an idol. That was 800 years later. 800 years is a long time especially when you put the entirety of US history being 250 years for perspective.
Went down a huge rabbit hole. The symbol used for medicine, the Rod of Asclepius from Greek mythology is actually predated by this story by about 1,000 years but it sounded so familiar I kept researching to see if they were connected. It turns out the Jewish tribes in Israel had a tribe of traders on the Mediterranean Sea called the Tribe of Dan. They made harbor on Cyprus and traded all the way to Athens and beyond.
This made me curious about other potential influences on Greek mythology like this so I got curious and decided to look up the most obvious one: Samson and Hercules (Heracles to the Greeks, Hercules is Romanized). It turns out Samson was from...the Tribe of Dan. The Greek's called these Jewish traders, "Haroclim" the Hebrew word for merchant. What is the likelyhood that Jewish traders telling stories about a man from their tribe being granted incredible strength by God evolving to influence the story of Hercules?
So I kept investigating the origins of Hercules. It turns out, I was in good company because Aristotle also investigated his origins. Aristotle traced the origins to Argos on the island of...Cyprus.
10 years ago people found...an ancient mosaic of Hercules...on Cyprus.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-15/rare-roman-mosaic-unc...
All that was from about 2-4 verses. I found it deeply interesting.
If you like history at all, just understanding the context of the time periods around any of the stories adds to it tremendously.
my experiences, one must dare not question it
I suppose that depends on the church and maybe the question? I don't know what was asked. The Bible is probably the most studied text in the world and if you do have questions, there are a lot of well studied answers out there. I was always very open about my own questions and found people who were genuinely interested in helping me to find answers, particularly the teachers. Those who aren't teachers probably just don't know how to answer appropriately. Churches are filled with a lot of people who have variety in their study, faith and experience. Learning not to assume everybody else had the same level of knowledge was a trap I had to get myself out of.
I asked enough questions and participated in enough lessons that I was eventually asked to teach a few. I had to teach a lesson about alcohol in an adult Sunday school class in a Baptist church! And I didn't teach what I was supposed to because the Baptist view and what the Bible actually says are two different things. I talked to other teachers about it and they were completely okay with it while also challenging me on some things, which gave me a greater understanding. The Bible itself talks about moderation. Not drinking too much. Baptists emphasize abstaining entirely. This bothered me greatly because, as far as I can tell, it's a man-made rule attempting to be stricter than the Bible itself. Jesus first miracle was turning water to wine after all.
That's where speaking to another teacher made an impact on me because he explained the reason. "Yes, you can moderate," he said "but the Paul says in Romans 14:13-23 that we should not cause another to stumble in their faith and specifically talks about food and wine. While you may be able to moderate, not everyone can. Baptists advocate for abstaining in an effort to help prevent others from stumbling."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2014%3A1...
That changed the way I viewed everything. I taught the lesson and highlighted the perspective.
But those people probably truly believe, unlike me. Thus, I might as well stay home at that point.
I was just trying to showcase the option to try in a low pressure situation. There will always be opportunities to talk, but for somebody curious and introverted this type of option makes it easier. It can be harder to walk into a smaller church where new people will stand out more if you're more introverted.
We must have wildly different experiences
Every church is different. Baptist churches in particular all have their own different constitutions. Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic and some others are much more standardized. There are over 1,500 different denominations and many independent churches. IMO this variety is a feature, not a bug.
However, there is absolutely a reason to fake it.
I get that. To be completely honest, I initially did the same thing. I went because it was important to my wife and having grown up around church my entire life I felt like I knew what to say to fit in. Eventually that changed as God started working on me.
God saved me at the lowest point of my life about 18 years ago when I was struggling with so much anger that I didn't even know I was capable of. It went on for 2 years. I tried to move on, to get over it. Nothing helped. Nothing would make me whole. It gave me chest pains. My wife asked me if I had asked God for help and at the time, I had not because I didn't believe it would make a difference. I bowed my head, closed my eyes and said, "God, please help me forgive." That night He took the anger and the pain away in a moment that I will never forget. He changed my life. I didn't do anything to deserve it. I have felt obligated to share my experience, and more, ever since.
I hope some of this helps you or anyone else reading it.