Understanding Doubt
Woodmen Valley Chapel

Doubt is but another element of faith.
St. Augustine

Be merciful to those who doubt.
Jude 22

We all encounter doubt. We can experience it in any number of arenas in our lives – from religious beliefs (whether a person is a believer in God or an atheist) to air travel to the stock market. But our specific focus during this series is dealing with doubt regarding the truth and veracity of Christianity.

Doubt is a hesitant, divided (“double-minded”) lack of confidence in whatever a person’s object of faith might be. Most see doubt as something to be avoided when, for finite creatures with limited knowledge in an infinite universe, at least occasional doubt is an inevitable consequence of being human. In our walk with Christ, rather than being an enemy, doubt can serve as a tool to both sharpen our thinking and build our faith.

For a follower of Christ, doubt is a wavering in the realm of belief.  The parallel in the journey of an open-minded unbeliever, who is still living in the realm of unbelief, is a hesitation to believe at all. (For the unbeliever who is resolute in their position, there is no “hesitation,” only a resolve to not believe.)  

For the wavering believer or the hesitant unbeliever, a danger for either person is to succumb to the temptation to disregard their doubt and not deal with it. In that case it doesn’t just disappear from our lives but, instead, takes up residence in the shadows of our consciousness. For the believer, that will lead to a truncated, diluted experience of the Life Christ promises. For the unbeliever, that neglect will give full permission for the unchallenged doubt to dominate our lives, morphing into resolute skepticism which prevents us from ever embracing Life-giving faith. 

The first step in dealing with doubt is to stare at it head-on and even dissect it, not unlike what you did with a specimen in your high school biology class. Delve into doubt in general but also the specifics of your doubt. Aim to get a better understanding of what is really at play in your doubt by examining the inner workings.

Intellectual Roots of Doubt
Last week we talked about how doubt is rooted in our intellect as we question the truthfulness and consequent trustworthiness of Christianity. This intellectual doubt is by far what most people are referring to when they think of doubt. It is where many of our questions (some of which we're addressing in this series) originate.

But, much more often than not, that intellectual level of doubt is also paired with a number of other factors. There are many, but here are a dozen of them (we referred to them as “The Doubters’ Dozen”).

We encourage you to honestly begin the process of dissecting your doubt. Explore it, wrestle with it, ask yourself the tough questions.  And remember, God isn’t afraid of your biggest questions.  He is a God who reveals himself in truth and actually becomes magnified the deeper we dig.

As you read though the list, be asking yourself: “Where do I see myself?” “Is my doubt as solid as I think it is?” “Is anything else accompanying my intellectual doubts about Christianity?” Ask God to bring some clarity to you.

Twelve Other Roots of Doubt

1. EMOTIONAL Roots – We sometimes can doubt because our emotions often masquerade as reason and logic and our emotional state becomes the underlying basis for our thinking and believing. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, talks about how a believer can experience this, “…and all at once his emotions will rise up and carry out a sort of blitz on his belief.”

2. SUPERFICIAL Roots – Maybe we have been nurtured in a very superficial understanding of the gospel, a shallow spiritual environment, or a barren religious tradition where the lack of substance and a solid foundation makes us vulnerable to doubt. Jesus referred to this lack of maturity in His parable of the soil in the fourth chapter of Mark’s gospel, when we don't allow the “seed” of Truth to develop a solid root system.

3. SLOTHFUL Roots – Doubt is sometimes rooted in an attempt to justify my lack of work or commitment regarding true belief. To authentically wrestle with the big questions of life takes effort. Such a person might say, “I’m not pursuing Truth or grappling with these questions any more because of my doubt,” when a more accurate statement might be, “I’m in the mire of doubt because of my negligence in the pursuit of Truth and the spiritual stagnation that resulted from that neglect.” As G.K. Chesterton stated about many of us, “The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting. It has rather been found difficult and left untried.”

4. TEMPERMENTAL Roots – Sometimes a person’s doubt is accelerated simply because they are more skeptical or critical by nature. Such predispositions are not necessarily unhealthy until they backfire (e.g., developing a tendency to focus exclusively on difficulties without being open and attentive to solutions, etc.).  Or another illustration would be a person’s great problem-solving skills morphing into a tendency to create problems so they can solve them – at work, that might be OK, but within our spiritual lives it’s a far more serious matter.

5. BEHAVIORAL Roots – The lifestyle implications of believing overwhelm us, thus we doubt because the cost of believing is too expensive in terms of moral or behavioral changes we’ll have to undergo in our lifestyle. Or, in other instances, our rebelliousness has cultivated a pattern of unrepentance, which makes us very vulnerable spiritually. Sometimes we might even dabble in doubt because it’s convenient to point to the supposed doubt as an excuse for our disobedience.

6. CIRCUMSTANTIAL Roots – Throughout our life’s journey in a fallen, broken world, we all experience tragedy and disappointment, leaving us wounded and sometimes bitter.  As happens so often, our faith is choked by the “whys” of life and that can result in a doubting posture that insinuates, “If God exists, why would he let this happen?!”

7. THEOLOGICAL Roots – Perhaps our doubt is rooted in an erroneous or inaccurate view of God – that he is a monster or unjust, etc.  Other times it can be rooted in an accurate view of God – e.g., His holiness – that we simply are not comfortable with. In our disdain in either scenario, we doubt: “I could never believe in a god like that.” This root is also related to our preferences (Root #8).

8. PREFERENTIAL Roots – Sometimes doubt is simply anchored or at least affected by our personal tastes and preferences: “What I think about God I don’t like so I am not going to believe.” As one atheist honestly writes, “It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God. I don’t want there to be a God. I don’t want the universe to be like that.”  Yet Truth is not dictated or determined by our preferences, instead our preferences are to be governed by Truth.

9. EGOTISTICAL Roots – When we succumb to the illusion of our self-sufficiency or bow before the idol of our individual autonomy (in which there is no accountability before a just God), our views of God or the possibility of God can be easily swayed by doubt.  Also, another aspect of the role our ego can play is when we receive attention for our rebelliousness – whether it be positive attention (getting friends or strangers to defer to us in ways they weren’t before) or negative (extracting revenge at someone close to us – a spouse or parent – by doubting beliefs that we know are precious to them).

10. CYNICAL Roots – At times, intentionally or unintentionally, we understandably allow isolated moments or prolonged seasons of disillusionment to taint our view of the veracity of Christianity. Whether it be the dysfunction or weirdness of the institutional church, the judgmental postures of some religious people, the failures of some professing Christians or the disappointment of unfulfilled expectations (from God or the church), any of those elements can contribute to our cynicism and consequent doubt.

11. HYPOCRITICAL Roots – When we’ve only experienced or come in contact with inauthentic Christianity at best or hypocritical religiosity at worst, doubt often isn’t far behind. When we’ve not been exposed to a vibrant, authentic experience with Christ in the context of a healthy community (but only a dead, hollow religiosity), a person who yearns for authenticity will then, understandably, begin to doubt Christianity (even though the Christianity they are doubting is a far cry from the biblical ideal).

12. SOCIAL Roots – Our assumptions about faith are both shaped and underscored by our peers. Sometimes in the echo-chambers of our own communities and relational networks, fragile presuppositions pose as facts and the undergirding – however frail – of our doubt escapes unchallenged. Bottom-line, often our doubt can simply be another avenue of acceptance with a desired group of friends or associates.

As I have mentioned many times, our culture is addicted to amusement (a-muse is to “not think”). We’d like to encourage you to not succumb to that malaise: push back against that temptation and run head-first into your doubt. It doesn’t have to be an angry or fear-filled process but an exploratory excursion meant to mine for Truth and build confidence in a God of both revealed truth and mystery.

We are here to serve you!  Stop by the Connections Bookstore and ask one of the store clerks for a book that might be helpful.  Maybe start with “In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It” by Os Guinness. We also have small groups specifically geared to address your questions.  Contact our Small Groups Pastor, Rob Bentz, to get involved or just to get more information.

But whatever you do, don’t stop digging. Thanks for journeying with us! 

Matt Heard
Senior Pastor