- Sep 27, 2019
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I don't think "doubt-tolerant" is an actual word but it's a word writer Philip Yancey used in an interview I've just read that he gave on the subject of faith and doubt.
In the interview he said that he often challenges students to find a single argument against God in the older agnostics (Bertrand Russell, Voltaire, David Hume) or the newer ones (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris) that is not already included in books like Psalms, Job, Habakkuk, and Lamentations and how he has respect for a God who not only gives us the freedom to reject him, but also includes the arguments we can use in the Bible.
My first experience of church was that asking questions was tantamount to a sin and I was basically told just to believe. I left in a state of some disgrace and this put me off church for some years until I decided to try a different church where I had a better experience.
I wonder what you think about doubt. Do you regard it as a weakness or even a strength? It seems to me that doubt and faith go hand-in-hand. The apostles and people who witnessed the risen Christ are the only people who know for certain that Jesus rose again (or didn't and it's all a hoax) but the rest of us are simply not in this privileged position. We can only have faith that He did but this does seem to imply a level of doubt. If we were certain, we would not need faith. So it doesn't seem warranted to feel guilty about having doubt and perhaps it's even a good and healthy thing to acknowledge it.
Edited to note that Christopher Hitchens died in 2011
In the interview he said that he often challenges students to find a single argument against God in the older agnostics (Bertrand Russell, Voltaire, David Hume) or the newer ones (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris) that is not already included in books like Psalms, Job, Habakkuk, and Lamentations and how he has respect for a God who not only gives us the freedom to reject him, but also includes the arguments we can use in the Bible.
My first experience of church was that asking questions was tantamount to a sin and I was basically told just to believe. I left in a state of some disgrace and this put me off church for some years until I decided to try a different church where I had a better experience.
I wonder what you think about doubt. Do you regard it as a weakness or even a strength? It seems to me that doubt and faith go hand-in-hand. The apostles and people who witnessed the risen Christ are the only people who know for certain that Jesus rose again (or didn't and it's all a hoax) but the rest of us are simply not in this privileged position. We can only have faith that He did but this does seem to imply a level of doubt. If we were certain, we would not need faith. So it doesn't seem warranted to feel guilty about having doubt and perhaps it's even a good and healthy thing to acknowledge it.
Edited to note that Christopher Hitchens died in 2011
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