Perhaps you have had a serious doubt about a particular Christian truth claim. You continue to believe, say, that Jesus is God incarnate, but you also seriously question that belief. Some of the doubts we experience can be easily brushed aside. We brush aside “light” doubts every day. But the kind of doubts I have in mind in this brief post are ones that are persistent and not easy to brush aside.What is doubt?
We could turn to the dictionary for an answer, but an actual example will be more illuminating. You believe that Jesus is God incarnate. You also believe that you lack sufficiently strong warrant, or evidence, for believing that Jesus is God incarnate. Consequently, the strength of your belief that Jesus is God incarnate begins to dwindle. Your mental attitude toward the proposition “Jesus is God incarnate” is one of diminished confidence, that is, doubt. That’s one way doubt manifests itself. But there is another way.
You believe (a) that Jesus is God incarnate. You also believe that the proposition (b) “Jesus never existed” is backed by stronger warrant, or evidence, than the proposition “Jesus is God incarnate”, though you don’t believe “Jesus never existed” is true. The strength of your belief in (a) is diminished because of your belief in (b).
{tweetme}Doubt co-exists with belief because doubt isn’t the absence or absolute negation of belief; rather, it is the diminishment of your confidence in your belief.{/tweetme} So can a Christian believe a central Christian truth and have persistent, serious doubts about it? I think so. But a state of persistent, serious doubt is not an ideal state to be in. We’ll deal with that problem in a moment.
Why doubts bother us
A doubt can bother us in two distinct ways. A doubt can bother us psychologically: we typically feel mental anguish when we are beset by serious doubt. It isn’t pleasant to believe a proposition (particularly a cherished, very personal one) and, at the same time, lack confidence that the cherished proposition is in fact true. Typically, the stronger the lack of confidence, the stronger our feeling of displeasure.Or a doubt can bother us intellectually: in this case, the doubt is a puzzle that we would very much like to solve but we find ourselves unable to. Borrowing from the examples above, we are unable to see just how the belief that Jesus is God incarnate is warranted or backed by sufficient evidence or how it can overcome counter-evidence; it is an intellectual puzzle that we lack the resources to solve.
Perhaps more often than not, both the psychological bother and the intellectual one arise within us at similar moments: we’re bothered psychologically as a severe doubt arises within us; this psychological discomfort may then move us to recognize that the intellectual problem of doubt is the source of our mental turmoil. Or, unable to solve an intellectual problem of doubt, we experience emotional discomfort. Whichever the case, doubt can be seriously debilitating.
Dealing with persistent, bothersome doubt
Probably most of our doubts we brush away because they aren’t all that significant. But some doubts are so puzzling or emotionally unsettling that we strongly desire to rid ourselves of them. How might we deal with persistent, bothersome doubt?Recall that the first kind of doubt arises when you come to think that your belief lacks warrant or evidence. How might we resolve a doubt of this kind? See if your belief in fact does have adequate evidence or warrant. That warrant may come from other propositions; from propositions assembled into arguments; or from an experience that grounds your belief in an adequate way. Take our earlier example: you believe Jesus is God incarnate. You begin to wonder whether you have sufficient evidence for that belief; doubt arises as you begin to think that you don’t. You wonder what evidence or warrant would adequately support your belief that Jesus is God incarnate. You examine other propositions, propositions like “the bible is reliable” and “the bible teaches that Jesus is God incarnate”; you consider relevant arguments; finally, you consider the fact that you find yourself simply believing “Jesus is God incarnate”, a belief that arises within you immediately upon reading the Gospels. Any of these procedures may be adequate for resolving your doubt.
The second kind of doubt arises when you come to believe that a proposition that conflicts with one of your beliefs has greater warrant, or evidence, in its favor relative to your presently held belief. How might we resolve doubt in this case? In the same way as the first case. See if it is true that the conflicting belief does in fact have greater warrant than your present belief. Are there better reasons for taking the conflicting belief to be true relative to your present belief? Consider our example: you believe Jesus is God incarnate; you also come to believe that there is good evidence that Jesus may never have existed (that is, evidence sufficiently strong to convince you it may be true. Obviously, if Jesus never existed, then Jesus couldn’t have been God incarnate.). You examine the evidence for and against; you consider the arguments pro and con; you consider the experience that gave rise in the first place to your belief that Jesus is God incarnate. As in the first case, any of those procedures may be adequate for resolving your doubt.
Another way
Nothing in what I have written should be taken to suggest that resolving persistent, bothersome doubts is easy or will happen quickly. Some doubts have a way of digging their heels in. And sometimes the best way to deal with them isn’t by sifting through evidence alone. Whenever we experience persistent, bothersome doubt, we should remain in a worshipping, edifying Christian community that holds forth the Word of God. Especially there, God is pleased to keep his children’s faith afloat, even when we personally lack the resources to cope.Doubts can be helpfully seen as a kind of personal weakness. {tweetme} We are beset by doubt because we don’t know everything and are susceptible to the pressures of this world. {/tweetme}And yet, God can and does minister to His beloved when we are weak. As Paul, speaking from personal experience, put it:
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair . . . . “ (II Corinthian 4:8).
That’s a promise we can be assured of.
Geoff Sackett is a Christian Union ministry fellow at Cornell University.After working in federal public policy and media relations for the US Congress and the American Electronics Association in Washington, DC, for six years, Geoff followed a call to Christian ministry. He served as the dean of students and lecturer in theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary. Geoff has spent the past 15 years on the Washington, DC, campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. Geoff graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with a masters of art. He went on to study systematic theology, ethics, and philosophical theology as a PhD student at the Catholic University of America.
Geoff enjoys studying and discussing Christian discipleship, theology, and philosophy. He also enjoys running, biking, and competing in triathlons. He, his wife, Heather, and their four young children enjoy exploring, playing, and laughing.
