20
Jun

Doubt: Religion’s 4 Letter Word

Posted by: MollyMormon   in Uncategorized

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I started this blog hoping to give a fair perspective of a faithful Mormon living Mormon doctrine. A second purpose is to give an honest reference of spirituality in the 21st century. According to this Pew Foundation Report, Millennials, my generation, consider themselves spiritual, but are less affiliated with organized religion than their parents.  I suspect that Millennials are looking for spiritual guidance where they spend their time, which is online. I’m just hoping to add some perspective to the online discussion in my preferred language, candor.

Perhaps one reason for my generation’s trend away from organized religious affiliation is because they are disillusioned by indirect answers.  Google readily delivers straight answers to their straight questions and most well established religious organizations sanitize their message. I don’t fault my peers’ dissatisfaction because frankly, I feel it myself.

But, the truth is that when God works with humans, it’s a process and it’s messy.  It’s been an arduous process to reach the level of spirituality I enjoy now and I have felt God was working through me, but my wrestling is laden with my imperfection. Therefore, the history of God’s dealing with mankind is similarly flawed. When spiritual leaders with good intention, smooth over the messiness I understand the angst of a twenty something who feels like saying “Dude, you’re not telling me the whole story.”

But I have found no one tells the whole story. They can’t. The whole story comes through wrestling and I don’t have a complete picture yet. And I don’t always end up with the answer I expected or a conclusion that is certain, but I always gain peace through the Holy Spirit’s process.

This brings me to a concept with which I am still struggling. Doubt it seems is a four letter word in circles actively promoting faith. But questioning has deepened my faith. I have found that it’s through taking questions to God and receiving communication from Him that I’ve gained not only a certainty that He exists, but an understanding of His nature that endears me to Him and persuades me to obedience and service. In other words, it is through questioning that I know God.

So where does doubt fit in?  The Lord said to an ancient American prophet, “And whosoever shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him will I confirm my words, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9:25).  So, I’m confused.

I’m opening this up to the diversity of opinion accessible in an online forum and personally remaining open to your thoughts. How can I doubt nothing when it is through questioning that my faith has substance?

(On Twitter?  I’m interested in following you http://twitter.com/EleeshaT)

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4 comments so far

Karen Trifiletti
 1 

Your reflections about doubt and questions do provoke some good thought and discussion. I’ll think out loud here with you. I think we use “doubt” in lots of ways… I feel that when the Lord gives me a promise, and I take it to the bank knowing He’ll cash on it, knowing His attributes well enough that He can do that even when the facts seem to the contrary, I’m not doubting of Him or His character. I think that’s the kind of faith He’s desiring for us to develop, and none of us are perfect. That said, I think He never says, “Don’t ask;” in fact, “Ask” and seek are the most-oft repeated commands of His word…I think we can question–concepts, doctrines, circs, something of His nature–wanting to know more (not doubting we can know more) and then He shares that with us. Questions don’t always stem from doubt–they can stem from desire to build on what we know, desire to understand a new concept, desire to resolve an issue, desire to understand how the Lord sees something perplexing, need to unravel a paradox, etc. I don’t have the final word, but just think that there’s a diff between asking in faith and doubting once we have had a witness or more than one witness (because He even says to prove that which we get, and I, frankly, always ask for a second witness to affirm it for much is often at stake in these spiritual understandings) that something is true… Musings for the moment. Thanks for your work!

June 22nd, 2010 at 11:37 AM
Anonymous
 2 

Look, I don’t mean to be nitpicky, but technically, doubt is actually a FIVE letter word. . . .

There is one issue with which your comment flirts, maliciously teasing it and leading it on, but without actually asking it out: why fear doubt?

We who like to consider ourselves intellectuals tend to be fairly certain that the way in which we embrace questioning is actually a show of our spiritual maturity, while the hoi polloi think that we are making incremental footsteps down the roads of apostasy. Neither appreciates the extent to which the other is correct.

Ultimately, we fear the art of doubting because doubting leads to answers, which lead to actions. We don’t always find the right answers, ergo, we don’t always engage in the right actions. Any person who endorses doubting as a good policy must either qualify their endorsement or accept the fact that some people will, in good faith, ultimately find that the fact pattern which makes the most sense to them is one in which there is no God and religion is a sham. The question is whether, knowing that this is the inevitable outcome of doubting, we should prefer accept a regime of doubters in which some will leave over a collection of unexamined lives.

And speaking of doubters, here’s something from the Gospel of Thomas, supposedly a logion of Christ Himself:

“Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.”

June 22nd, 2010 at 10:25 PM
Hugh
 3 

I think its perfectly acceptable to have questions about your faith (in areas of personal uncertainty), as long your heart and mind remain focused on the discovery of truth, i.e. obtaining a testimony through the Spirit of the Lord. I think this kind of doubt might be better defined as ‘uncertainty’, since it stems from an incomplete understanding of a particular principle or teaching.

Sometimes we feel unsure b/c we simply don’t yet have a testimony of a particular principle of the gospel–like tithing, chastity, etc. In such cases, the scriptures counsel us to “prove” the Lord, or in other words, follow his commandments in faith, in order to receive a testimony of those things. I’ve done this in my own life and can say with certainty that, eventually, God reveals the truth of those things we seek.

However, when doubt causes us to question (often due to social/political circumstances) those things we’ve already received a witness of, we begin to distance ourselves from God and from truth. This is the kind of doubt which seems to substitute a search for truth with a desire to avoid mental/emotional/social discomfort that might come from following commandments not wholly accepted or respected by those around us.

I guess the determining issue is whether questions or doubts help you turn towards or away from God. Anything that turns us away from Him is definitely something we want to avoid.

June 24th, 2010 at 2:46 PM
Jed
 4 

As Karen pointed out, I think the apparent conflict regarding doubt can be resolved in part by realizing that doubting is not the same as questioning. I can question something without necessarily doubting, and even if I’m uncertain about a particular principle of the gospel, that doesn’t mean I should be (or am) doubting God, his existence, his power, or his manifestations.

I think it is difficult to impossible to study the gospel and the scriptures appropriately without asking questions, and as Karen also points out, God commands us to ask and seek. That is consistent with the commandment not to doubt – ask a question while believing that you will get an answer!

Most people feel doubt at some point in life about important principles including the existence of God or other core religious beliefs, and I don’t think that we should deny the reality of those feelings when they come. However, I don’t think that feeling doubt means that I have to choose to continue to feel doubt. I can choose to recall moments when I experienced a witness from God; I can pray for his help and his Spirit; I can turn my thoughts and my focus from myself towards serving others and otherwise trying out God’s commandments instead (as Hugh mentioned).

I think many religious people feel guilty about the idea of choosing to believe gospel principles without subjecting them to a critical analysis of a scientific kind, and such an analysis involves or requires doubt. If the history of modern philosophy teaches us anything, however, it is that when we doubt everything, we can disprove everything (see the long line of philosophical responses to Descartes). A thoroughly and universally skeptical approach to everything, including all assumptions underlying all beliefs, would even disprove itself.

Instead, I believe that everyone must start with a set of assumptions. Based on my personal experience with the Holy Spirit in answer to my prayers, I have decided to make the existence of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and their revelation through modern prophets as some of my assumptions.

I believe that the process by which I reached those assumptions stands outside the critical approach I use when I participate in scientific inquiry. Although such a skeptical approach works better than any other across a wide range of issues, I think it ultimately strangles itself when applied to every aspect of life completely. And in my case, I have found that the result of choosing these assumptions is a wonderful, blessed life – so perhaps my approach can even offer “proof” in a scientific sense after all!

But even if it doesn’t, I believe I have made a choice that is good, based on true principles, and my life experience has borne that out. My belief system welcomes all truth from any source, as long as it isn’t a best-explanation-for-now theory dressed up as ultimate and unchangeable fact (which sometimes happen when people overstep the philosophical limits of the scientific method). I have confidence that in the end, the truth will prevail, and I feel fortunate that that truth will include some of the basic principles to which I have committed.

June 24th, 2010 at 7:13 PM

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