“Doubt comes in at the window when Inquiry is denied at the door.” - Benjamin Jowett, a 19th-century Oxford theologian and reformer known for championing open-minded faith and intellectual honesty. - Benjamin Jowett

We all wrestle with doubt - whether it’s a late-night question about God’s existence or a quiet unease during Sunday worship. But too often, churches are better at silencing doubt than answering it.

A recently re-broadcast Classic Unbelievable? episode captured this tension perfectly, as agnostic Andrew Whyte sat down with pastors Dominic Done and Greg Boyd. The conversation wasn’t just powerful - it was painfully honest. What happens when those called to shepherd are themselves wounded by unanswered questions?

The insights from that show from Dr. Erik Straness inspired the reflections that follow… 

 

We all have doubts that lead us to question our faith. Some of us will dismiss them as mysteries we won’t understand this side of heaven, while others will find them deal-breakers. Sadly, when we doubt, we are often left with nowhere to turn because the church is either unwilling or unable to provide clear answers. Some churches respond to doubt by suggesting that it’s a sign of a weak faith and that to explore it is to court evil; others are simply unprepared to deal with it because they lack the proper apologetic training and resources.

Data suggests that both of these ecclesial responses have led to a significant exodus of young people from the church. The good news is that they still see themselves as spiritual, but the bad news is that they practice it in unorthodox ways. This group of unaffiliated Christians has been dubbed the “nones” by the Pew Research Center.[2] Many organizations have studied this demographic to better understand why they are leaving their faith. One of the most well-known, The Barna Group, identified six reasons for this exodus:[3]

1. The church is overprotective.

2. The church is shallow.

3. The church is anti-science.

4. The church is repressive, especially as related to sexuality.

5. The church is exclusive in its membership and claims.

6. The church is unfriendly to those who doubt.

While only the sixth reason directly addresses doubt, the others similarly reflect the church’s inability or unwillingness to respond to uncertainty. Where can young people turn if the church is, at worst, resistant to their questions and, at best, unable to answer them? Although many excellent Christian worldview programs are available, many only offer simple answers to the common objections to Christianity, but don’t allow students to hear directly from those raising them. I believe this is one reason for the popularity of long-format podcasts. Young people are tired of two-minute sound bites from talking heads, whether politicians or pastors; they prefer listening to thoughtful discussions between people with different perspectives. Young people don’t want to see religious memes; they want to discuss religious themes.

When you demonize or dismiss doubt, it becomes more mysterious; shrouded in intellectual darkness, its power grows. If we truly believe that nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known, then it seems reasonable to expect the Light of the World to illuminate our uncertainty. If we truly believe that God is the all-powerful Creator of the universe, then we can be confident He won’t buckle under the weight of a few mortal queries. God is a big boy, perfectly capable of answering all our questions, so let’s stop treating Him like a 90-pound weakling who needs the church to defend Him from the cultural bullies who kick sand in His face.

Unbelievable? has featured several shows about doubt. Two of the more memorable ones showcased agnostic Andrew Whyte in discussion with pastors Dominic Done and Greg Boyd. The shows were fascinating because each guest recounted how their sincere, heartfelt questions were met with dismissive reactions from the church. Interestingly, the doubt that Boyd and Done experienced strengthened their faith, while Whyte lost his. Whyte now identifies as an agnostic because he recognized that the fundamentalism he rejected in Christianity wasn’t limited to the church but was also prevalent in the atheist community. However, agnosticism introduces an even bigger problem because you will never find the treasure you seek if your disregard for the cave dwellers prevents you from spelunking the truth. Once you doubt the credibility of both theism and atheism, the likelihood of finding answers to your metaphysical questions becomes twice as difficult.

 

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I’ve Been to the Desert

Sadly, we often dismiss doubters as those who were never truly converted in the first place. While this may be true in some cases, we should be cautious about dismissing them as desert nomads and consider the possibility that they are simply believers experiencing a particularly dry season of faith. It could be that the more severe the drought, the thirstier they are, and that doubt, rather than exposing a desiccated faith, is a desperate cry for the church to rehydrate them with some answers. Doubt, while existentially troubling, has a powerful way of heightening our spiritual thirst, and the more arid the season, the sweeter the Living Water will taste.  

Aslan: Are you not thirsty?

Jill: I’m dying of thirst.

Aslan: Then drink.

Jill: May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do? Will you promise not to - do anything to me, if I do come?

Aslan: I make no promise.

Jill: Do you eat girls?

Aslan: I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms.

Jill: I daren’t come and drink.

Aslan: Then you will die of thirst.

Jill: Oh dear! I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.

Aslan: There is no other stream.[4]

The church needs to stop silencing doubt and begin providing answers. Our parishioners are thirsty. The world is thirsty. So let’s make every apologetic effort to lead people to the living water so they can taste and see that He is good, because if we don’t, they will be forced to drink from a cultural spigot and risk spiritual dysentery.

Wrestling with God

Dominic Done used the story of Jacob wrestling with God near the Jabbok River as an analogy for our struggles with doubt. Jacob had the faith of his ancestors but had yet to make it his own until he engaged in a personal struggle with God. The results of this wrestling match were twofold. First, Jacob acquired a permanent limp because his hip was dislocated, and second, he was given a new name, Israel. When we wrestle with God, we will also be stamped with a divine term of endearment and never walk the same way again.

Done argued that doubt isn’t the church’s dirty little secret but rather an altar call for those with serious questions.

“Doubts aren’t a sign of spiritual collapse but of a faith that is screaming out for substance and truth.”[5]

Done recognizes that we will never get all the answers in this life, but the questions are what make the journey so compelling.

“If all we care about is certainty, we lose the beauty of mystery. If all we value is explanation, we lose the joy of exploration. Deep faith is about progress, not perfection… That is what God invites us to step into. Celebrate mystery. Dance with curiosity. Resist the status quo. You’re a pilgrim; explore. It is better to encounter God on the threshold of risk than to lose him in the comfort of mediocrity. Probe, wrestle, pursue, inquire. Ask the questions no one is willing to ask.”[6]  

Knowledge Languages

In the early 1990s, Gary D. Chapman wrote a popular book, “The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts,” which proposed that people give and receive love in one of five basic ways. He suggested that understanding our personal love language and that of our partner is crucial to a strong relationship. I believe epistemology is similar. We each have our own “knowledge language” through which we process and share information. Just as we express and receive love differently, we also give and receive knowledge differently. This concept is very important as we address doubts and effectively communicate the Gospel. People come to Christ in diverse ways and, once converted, begin a lifelong journey of accumulating knowledge about their newfound faith. We, therefore, need to be aware of our own “knowledge languages,” as well as those of our target audience. The questions they ask won’t be our questions, and the answers they seek won’t be our answers. When confronted with doubt, we must remember that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all apologetic.

Line of Best Fit

Instead of treating doubt as a sincere intellectual pothole in need of filling, the church puts hazard tape around it and warns young people not to get too close. I believe Christianity is better served if we straighten our paths by filling the holes with apologetic cement rather than forcing others to navigate around their doubts. Doubt, rather than leading us astray, should pave the way for faith.

I don’t want to frighten those of you who are mathematically challenged, but I believe the concept of a “line of best fit” is a helpful metaphor for our faith journey. The “line of best fit” is a line through a scatter plot of data points that best represents the relationship between them. Our lives are essentially a series of data points gathered through experience and inquiry. The more points we add to our graph, the closer our life line approximates reality, and the more confident we can be in the trajectory of our faith.

Once we enter all the data and chart the path of our lives, we will see that it forms a faith vector. The questions we raise during moments of doubt, rather than suggesting we are lost, give us even more confidence that we are headed in the right direction. We cannot dismiss the hard questions because when we do, we deprive people of the data they desperately need to construct a “line of best fit” - a faith vector that not only gives their earthly lives direction but also points them to glorious things not yet seen.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

 

Erik Strandness is a physician and Christian apologist who practiced neonatal medicine for more than 20 years and has written three apologetic books. Information about his books can be found at godsscreenplay.com 

 

[1] Read more: https://www.wiseoldsayings.com/doubt-quotes/#ixzz6MjNxSXoG

[2] The Pew Research Center, “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace

An update on America’s changing religious landscape,” (October 2019), https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/ The good news is that recent polling suggest that this trend may be plateauing.

[3] David Kinnaman. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011). P. 92-93

[4] C.S. Lewis. The Silver Chair.

[5] Dominic Done. When Faith Fails: Finding God in the Shadow of Doubt. (Nashville TN: Nelson Books, 2019) Location 395.

[6] Ibid. Location 581 & 674.

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