"There lives more faith in honest doubt,
believe me than in half the creeds."
- Alfred Tennyson
believe me than in half the creeds."
- Alfred Tennyson
It is a fairly common conservative Christian notion that this life is a sort of "test" we must pass in order to be admitted to salvation on the Other Side. There are various accounts of what we must do in order to "pass" the test, but usually the list includes something about faith/belief in the face of trials. When doubts arise, we are encouraged to be "faithful" and to treat the doubts as "trials" to be overcome.
But what does it really mean to be "faithful" in the face of doubt? Most conservative Christians would say it means, "do your best to find answers to your questions, then shelve any remaining issues and stay true to conservative Christian faith." This is what several commenters are recommending to David Waltz, over on Articuli Fidei. I'd suggest, however, that this is not the best or even most biblical answer. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), we find another.
In the parable of the talents, a master gives golden talents (an ancient unit of money) to three servants. The first two servants invest the money and earn a return on their investment. The third servant, however, is afraid, and hides his talent in the ground. The master praises the faithfulness of the first two servants, but berates the third for his laziness and wickedness.
I would suggest that the ability to think rational thoughts is one of the greatest gifts of humankind. It is what separates us from the animals. It is what made possible the technological progress of the twentieth century. It is what seems to be meant in the Bible, when we are said to have been created in the image of God. When Jesus is said in the Gospel of John to be the Logos (usually translated as Word), the Greek word could just as easily be translated as Reason.
So if reason, our most unique gift and talent, leads us to doubt and question tenets of the faith, who is the "faithful" one? The one who "buries" his questions and/or puts them on the shelf? Or the one who becomes fully invested in the questions and allows his reason and conscience to be his guide? Who is the one who will pass the test? The one who follows the crowd and never has the courage to question his own convictions? Or the one who overcomes the fear of the unknown and follows the evidence wherever it leads?
I would suggest that "shelving" our doubts is intellectually lazy, just like the servant in the parable. Its consequences are all too often wicked, as well. I'm sure I don't have to list the terrible things that have been done in the name of reactionary, fundamentalist religion. A little reason can be a potent antidote against such abuses, if only we will have the courage to faithfully invest it.
12 comments:
Hmm...I would never have imagined comparing the talents to the questions. Interesting...
Really? A "talented" questioner like you? *grin*
I guess I did bury all my talents :3
But I took a look over at Articuli Fidei...it's funny, that even though the arguments use different words, they seem pretty similar to arguments used to try to get doubting/disaffected Mormons back into the faith.
Indeed they are quite the same!
I'm stealing the title that MormonMatters assigned to this post in their sideblog. It's much better than the original title of the post. Thanks, MM!
hey, i found you on dave armstrong's blog. that guy is awesome to read. i enjoyed checking your stuff out.
Thanks, Frank! I've tried to plow through Dave A's latest series on Jason Engwer and development, but phew! There are only so many hours in a day! :-)
Great post. To "shelve doubts" doesn't just seem intellectually lazy, but also dishonest. Perhaps we're too afraid to confront some of our doubts because we're afraid of the perceived punishment. I know I was (and still am). Where do we draw the line between "lean not on thine own understanding" and making good use of our reason?
Hi ts,
Good question. I generally take "lean not on your own understanding" as a call not to abandon reason, but to recognize its limits. Of course we can't know everything, and we can't know it perfectly. There are some things that are simply unknowable. But that doesn't mean that when it comes to the knowable things, we should just ignore what reason has to say!
Thanks for reading and commenting,
-Chris
Doubts are not so bad. Jesus picked a doubter for one of his apostles. Today, Thomas would be a seminary professor. After all he saw while following Jesus, it was only when he stuck his hand in the wounds and actually felt the solid flesh that he finally believed. Some of us have to do that. But when you are buried beneath the rubble of a collapsed bank in Haiti for six days with no food or water, it's nice to KNOW that you are linked to a divine power that will never let you down.
Seems to me the talent was buried to protect it. The doubt is shelved awaiting further examination another day. Different processes, I think. But still a good ponder. Thanks.
P
"I generally take "lean not on your own understanding" as a call not to abandon reason, but to recognize its limits"
Very well put. This is a topic that comes up amongst my friends and youth group alot, so I may have to adopt this phrase.
When in moments of doubt, I find it best to refer back to the character of God. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that God's character never waivers. The closer you get to knowing Him, the easier it becomes to know how He might think or handle a situation. This is one of those areas where the past (Bible) can be extremely helpful in understanding the present.
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