Friday, March 14, 2014

Doubt is the whetstone of faith

Philosophy, art and poetry have always welcomed doubters. Shakespeare, the bestselling poet of all time wrote, “Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.” Unlike philosophy, art and poetry, however, religion is not always comfortable with doubt. In the Christian tradition, folks are often weary of doubt—and doubters.
One of the most notorious religious doubters was a disciple of Jesus named Thomas. In the Christian New Testament book of John, Thomas declares to his buddies (who have recently seen the resurrected Jesus), “Unless I see… I will not believe.” One week later Jesus appeared to Thomas. In most English translations, Jesus says to him (rather dryly, I imagine), “Do not doubt, but believe.”
On April 20th, Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Prior to that holy day, I would like to try and set the record straight. I want to clear Thomas’ name. I want to clarify and redeem that odious title “Doubting Thomas,” which is an inaccurate translation of the original Greek text.
In the original Greek of the phrase I quoted above, Jesus does not say, “Do not doubt, but believe.” A more accurate translation is “Don’t become unfaithful, but faithful.” The difference between doubt and unfaithfulness is important, because one can have doubts, but still be faithful.
Doubt, by definition, presumes some level of belief, for you cannot doubt that which you do not, at some level, believe. You must believe a part of something in order to doubt another part of the same thing. The issue for Jesus with Thomas, according to the original language of the text, is not that he might have doubts about the resurrection, but that he might lose his faith in the God of 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, and here’s why. My experience suggests that religious faith is a two-sided coin. On one side is belief. On the other side is doubt. A living faith has aspects of doubt and belief. 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 faith. Like a knife in need of sharpening, faith needs a whetstone to hone its edge. Doubt is the whetstone of faith.
Doubt is an intellectual gift from God. Doubt is not to be feared, but embraced, for God is greater than doubt. Indeed, God uses our doubts to lead us deeper into the mystery of our faith. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Thomas.

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