Got Doubts?

Philosophy, art and poetry have always welcomed doubters. Take the bestselling poet of all time, Shakespeare, who wrote, “Mmodest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” However, unlike poets, the religious have mostly been suspicious of doubt—and doubters. One of the most notorious religious doubters in history is Thomas. In the Christian New Testament, we read about Thomas in the Gospel according to John.  In this gospel, Thomas declares to his buddies who have recently seen the resurrected Jesus, “Unless I see…. I will not believe.” One week later Jesus appears to Thomas. In most English translations, Jesus says to him (rather dryly, I imagine), “Do not doubt but believe.”                                    

                                                                                                                                      

It’s time to set the record straight. I want to clear Thomas’ name. I want to clarify and redeem that odious title, “Doubting Thomas,” which is a mistranslation.         In the original Greek of the phrase I quoted earlier, Jesus does not say, “Do not doubt but believe.” A more accurate, though admittedly clumsy translation is “Do not be unbelieving but believing.”                                                                                                         

This is an important distinction between the usual reading of this verse and the literal rendering of the phrase. This distinction is important because, in my book, there is major difference between unbelief and doubt.                                                                                                                                                                                             

What I mean to suggest is this: doubt presumes belief—for you cannot doubt that which you do not believe (however meagerly the case may be). You must believe something in order to doubt that same something. Thomas, according to the original language of the text, did not believe Jesus had been resurrected—so he could not have doubted the resurrection.                                                                                                          

You may wonder if I have gone off the deep end…why else get so nit-picky about a couple of words? The choice of words makes all the difference in my Christian faith. And here’s why: my experience suggests that religious belief is a two sided coin. On one side is faith. On the other is doubt. Faith and doubt are companions to religious belief. They are spiritual siblings. It’s like Khalil Gibran, the third bestselling poet of all time declared, “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”                                                                                                                                                                                  

Were it not for doubt, which is nothing more than curiosity or inquisitiveness, we would not grow in belief.  Faith does not increase belief (conviction), nor does belief (conviction) increase faith. Like a knife in need of sharpening, faith, too, needs a whetstone to hone its edge. Doubt, dear readers, is the whetstone of faith.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Doubt is a gift from God. Doubt is not to be feared but embraced: for God is greater than our doubts—indeed, God uses our doubts to lead us deeper into the mystery of our belief. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Thomas.