on doubt

We doubt about all sorts of things, but only sometimes are we willing to admit it. It's frightening to be absolutely free of doubt, because that shows that you are nothing more than an arrogant fool who assumes he has it all figured out. Doubts reveal that we're not sure about things, and being unsure of things can only happen when we're wise enough to know that (a) we don't have everything figured out, as well knowing that (b) most of what we "know" is probably wrong. This sort of humility is good, and the doubts that arise shouldn't be viewed, I think, as "necessary evils." Doubts arise amidst the earthquakes of colliding worldviews, coming to life as we wrestle with things much larger than ourselves. Doubts shouldn't send us scurrying fearfully into the shadows but, rather, listened to: these doubts tell us so much about ourselves, about the ways we view the world, and doubts should be listened to, wrestled with, and allowed to do their proper work. 

Dove-tailing into the realm of Christianity, Christians who have doubts about anything related to the faith shouldn't be dismissed as fools lacking faith (as many people will do) but acknowledged as reasonable, thinking people wrestling with real-life issues in the real world. This kind of wrestling is a good kind of struggle, the struggle that makes us wiser, smarter, and, ultimately, more humble. Half of Christianity is the "renewing of the mind" (lofty language about how conversion to Christianity is a conversion to a radically different worldview, and conforming to Christ is possible only if our worldviews are reshaped and tweaked by the gospel), and the journey of this renewal involves the clashing of worldviews, and in this friction there's earthquakes, and these doubts are a good and necessary part of that experience. Jesus didn't scold Thomas for his doubt but invited him to investigate it for himself; the appropriate response to doubt, I think, isn't brushing it under the carpet or pretending it's not there, but facing it for all its beauty and ugliness and tackling it head-on.