We here discuss an important factor in the intellectual/emotional life of mankind. For the want of a better symbol we refer to doubt. Words related to doubt (as also applies to doubt itself), are so full of emotional context, that we feel like we are in a mine field when we approach the theme. There is skepticism, which may carry an emotional burden greater than mere doubt. Doubt has many heroes, starting in our context with the age of Socrates in the western world. It tends to call upon the restrained intellect more than the dancing emotions like joy. It tends to assume that what is known implies the unknown, unless the unknown has a course unrelated to what is known. True limits of doubt are often cast in the simple remark: I don’t know. The response, I-don’t-know, belongs to mystery, when the objective response is engaged, but is often used by the doubter as a means for avoiding controversy, or for ground not covered by the knowledgeable in a secular posit to conclusion. Life and relationships are full of this positive/negative flow of energy, which, like the great force of the negative and positive force of the Sun, are inevitable and seem to be out of our control. Even so, it can be addressed with some sense of human satisfaction.
Saintly persons have wrestled with doubt: Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, and the list is lengthy. Kierkegaard appears to have worked his way along through every step from doubt to profound belief in Christ. Judas lost the wrestling match: Peter won it. Some win: some lose. We wish we could find the key that opens faith, and closes doors that resists it. Christianity Today, in 2010, listed five books the editor thought best in approaching the discussion of doubt. They were: Belief and Unbelief by Michael Novak; A Place to Stand, by Elton Trueblood (a favorite author of mine in my generation, and speaker heard by me); In Praise of Doubt, by Peter Berger (also a favorite author of mine) and Anton Zijderveld; Doubt, by Jennifer Michael Hecht; and, Knowing Christ Today, by Dallas Willard (also a favorite). Willard has also written widely and well on other issues. At the request of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Joseph Turnipseed wrote an excellent review of the Hecht volume, and was positive about its presentation of doubt contexts in the eastern and western world. Although Hecht tends to come down on the side of the doubters, the treatment is as wide as most persons are likely to get in understanding what are the driving factors/ideas related to doubt and belief in any society or context. Doubt is universal and permeating.
Our concerns relate to two large considerations. First, there is a continuum upon which doubt is always present, never totally eliminated but reduced or increased, depending upon the person. It is not going to eliminate questions, but some questions seem to carry some inclination of doubt in them. The person is willing to wait and seek for whatever truth is needed to settle this or that issue. Perhaps more important than the first, the second matter rises. When does one cross a line in the incursion of some doubt so that faith is strained, perhaps even made ineffective? When does the person of former faith become an apostate person? Those without faith have no personal concern with the matter. Their very lack of faith is testimony sufficient to the evaluation that the person is without context in the areas of discussion, or that whatever general faith claimed is a made up form, a counterfeit model. It adds no force to the discussion. We seem to know little about doubt, or how to manage it. It can be managed for good. In government it forces combative debate, and differential beliefs. Blame grows out of it. The business person blames the consumer. The taxpayer blames the government. The poor blame the rich. There are many ways to measure doubt that leads to beliefs and actions that do not solve problems. The wise person knows this is all inevitable in an imperfect society, and the doubts of persons that lead to cheating, to greed, to violence, even to decline in the human condition. Suspicion becomes strong. Doubt, when it is applied to learning, and used as a motivator, becomes beneficial in the education of the person, even the society. When the attitude of mankind is for truth discovered for us in peace, we will find uses for doubt. When there appears compulsion or ill-will in debate we can’t be sure if either the faith or the doubt in the communication is genuine or hypocritical. There are many reasons making freedom essential. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020