Mitch Stokes » God Mission Wisdom Gospel Sanctification

Doubts creep into our minds and are capable of doing a lot of damage. But there is a healthy way to treat doubt so that we can learn and grow from the experience.

The Devil Inside

“I’m just glad I believe.”

It was about the worst answer she could have given me. Her reply not only revealed her frustration, but also suggested she was giving up—that I was to be left alone with my doubts. And what really bothered me was that it started looking like my questions had no good answers, which just confirmed my suspicions.

Maybe science was responsible for my doubts. Engineering had trained me to demand a special kind of evidence for my beliefs—scientific evidence. This vague requirement extended to all my beliefs (I thought), even to my “religious” ones. And to be sure, a common belief is that there’s an inherent conflict between science and belief in God, as well as the corollary that science has shown God doesn’t exist.

It isn’t necessarily the strength of the arguments that rattles us, but the way they resonate with the unbeliever in each of us. 

I’ve since learned that science was indeed responsible for my doubts, but in a surprisingly different way. For years I had been immersed in a discipline that altogether ignores questions of philosophy and theology (and history and literature and anything else not covered by physics, chemistry, or mathematics). My education and vocation had been restricted and lopsided. It was as if I had lifted heavy weights with only my right arm, allowing the rest of my body to atrophy. Science without good philosophy distorts and stunts our growth. At its best, unaided science results in idiot savants.

So, the war between belief and unbelief exists in microcosm inside every believer. We should remember, as the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga says, that “believers are constantly beset by doubts, disquietude, spiritual difficulty, and turmoil…It never goes that well with us, and it often goes a good deal worse. There is an unbeliever within the breast of every Christian.”

Doubt that Defends and Strengthens

Believers often worry that their doubts signify the rapid approach of full-blown unbelief. But as pastor and author Tim Keller puts it,

Faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. (The Reason for God)

All thoughtful believers—even those whose faith is mature—encounter doubt. Not one single person has had unadulterated faith.

Whatever the cause(s) of my own doubting, I found that people had already addressed many of my questions. Some of these people had died centuries ago; others have years left. A few of them only made things worse, but many had good answers. All in all, I was rehabilitated. My belief in God stood.

But I still respect the questions. I even entertain them, putting them in their proper place. Questions are natural, and ignoring them is unnecessary and even dangerous. Addressing them, on the other hand, usually yields sizeable dividends.

Often, however, the cause of our doubt isn’t what you might think. It isn’t necessarily the strength of the arguments that rattles us, but the way they resonate with the unbeliever in each of us (what the Bible calls the “old self”). We hear Tokyo Rose’s voice and she seems to make pretty good sense sometimes. Yet more often than not, if we look closely at the atheists’ arguments, we find that there is little substance. Seeing this can change the argument’s frequency and therefore break its spell.

In any case, it certainly won’t do to ignore your doubts, and defusing them will only strengthen your faith. To be sure, doubts can be strong enough to become a trial in your life. But like all trials, they’re meant to refine faith, not stifle it.

So, are you beset by doubt?  Deal with it.

 

 Mitch Stokes is the author of his newly released book, A Shot of Faith {to the Head}: Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists. 

 

 

« Newer Older »