Open Discussion: January 12, 2025

Grace & Peace PGH

“A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who go blithely through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long consideration. “Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts – not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’… Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous and offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt. “But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B… Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith.” – Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.