Doubt versus Faith
(Thoughts from ~burning woman~ by Sha'Tara)
"Doubt by its nature is omnivorous; it consumes everything." (Stephen R. Donaldson: A Dark and Hungry God Arises)
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." (Book of James, The Bible - New Testament, NIV)
What is this thing we call doubt? Is it something that destroys us, or something that gets us out of an eternal treadmill? In general, doubt is considered to be a negative attribute. Look at the two quotes above!
However (and there's always an "however") one should always be careful to notice who it is who makes the claim. Why is doubt a bad thing? Well, and in actual fact, it isn't for an individual. Doubt is "bad" in relationships, no matter who or what one relates to. Doubt can destroy "love" bonds, and it can drive one away from one's beliefs.
Therefore, doubt is a very powerful ingredient in a person's life. Confucius ostensibly said that "to know that one knows what one knows, and to know that one doesn't know what one doesn't know is true wisdom" would seem to leave the wise with absolutely no doubts about anything. You just know. Faith? Certainly a close relative, don't you think?
The problem with that Confucianism is that there will always be things one can't be sure about; things one can't decide if one knows for sure or not. Some days, certainty; some days, utter doubt. Back and forth... until the issue is decided through what can only be called experience. If it works then there is no longer any need for doubt. The conclusion, "It works!" (kind of a eureka!), or contrariwise, "It does not work!" settles the matter. That is, that particular "matter" is settled beyond doubt, but enter an infinite host of new input that also has to be settled.
I mentioned faith. Faith is an interesting concept also. Faith is that can of whitewash people use to brush over their doubts and make them disappear into the woodwork. Bring up an argument that destroys a faith person's claims and immediately out comes the whitewash: It doesn't matter because I have faith and faith overrules any other claim.
It's a wonderful placebo, but it doesn't come cheap. While doubts make the mind reel with possibilities, faith deadens moral and ethical concerns. Faith, the apparent opposite of doubt is the great magical blinder religious people (particularly, although faith is certainly not cloistered to the religious sphere: look at how many buy lottery tickets or rush to the gambling casinos; how many believe in the "Wall Street" capitalists wear with pride. Billions of them wandering around as sheep on the hillsides uncaring whether there be wolves hiding in the bushes because their faith guarantees that there are shepherds all around taking care of any danger.
Yes, and I've met some of those shepherds, which is why I'm no longer a sheep myself. There are wolves in those bushes - they are, after all, hungry predators who happen to like sheep - and there are a whole lot more dressed in sheepskins wandering among the flock just helping themselves. And how was I able to detect this problem? Doubt. The official line simply did not align with my experience. The promises failed to materialize. Faith, pushed to the limit, simply collapsed under pressure and nothing I did could make it rise up and walk again. So I figured if I had to push, pull or carry the thing on my back, that would make me a donkey instead of a sheep - hardly an improvement.
Valerie Tarico, ex-everything Christian raised in a fundamentalist Christian home, wrote a very interesting book, "Trusting Doubt." It's been a while since I read it, but what I remember most is that it made sense to me, also ex-just about everything Christian I have become. The difference between Tarico and myself is that she focused (so it seemed anyway) more on what Christians did NOT do as requirements of being members of the club, that is, followers of Jesus Christ. They made the claim but did not follow the rules in the rule book. That did not surprise me at all: no one can follow those rules I found out, so rather than continue living the perfect hypocritical pretend holy life, I quit. If you can't do the job, don't hide in the woodwork, staying just by paying your dues. Get the hell out and "sin boldly" as Martin Luther is quoted as saying.
Let me embellish the "why I quit pretending to be a Christian" claim. You might think it was because it became too hard to do, but that's as far from my reasoning as you could get. No, I quit because both God and Jesus lied to me. That's right: they lied so blatantly, it was worse than the white collar criminals who got those government handouts in 2008 and following. It was sick.
God makes it very clear that if anyone prays to Him in faith, he will grant that one's prayers. Jesus goes a huge step further and promises that those who believe in him would do greater things than he ever did because he would make sure that every disciple would receive the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, a power that would teach the disciple, and remind the disciple of all things. That's right: all things, not just some things. Along with that was the power to do miracles and the power to convict the world of its evil ways in such a way that people would see it and would desire to change; to become better, fuller, human beings. There was a catch to these wonderful promises: those who "pushed" this divine power and wisdom would be earmarked by the "Powers" (of earth and of heaven!) for persecution and martyrdom. Earth would be a place of danger and death because this power was the power of truth; a power that made a mockery of all the lesser "powers" that ruled over and controlled man.
Faith was the prerequisite - not religious performance. Faith opened the door to this Holy Spirit and (as seen in the Book of Acts) gave instantaneous results. A spirit-filled individual would heal people on the spot and would be able to understand and converse in any Earthian language, instantly, naturally, so that anyone could clearly understand what was being explained without any translation.
Imagine being able to know all things. You wouldn't need any bibles or other religious clap-trap to study or share the "good news" of the gospels. You wouldn't need any media events or hype - you just needed to be wherever you were and you can be sure that as soon as people found out the power you had, they'd come for their cures and perhaps some wisdom about their personal problems.
Problem: it was all a scam. After a brief time of miracles, multiple-tongue speaking and also an honest sharing of all resources among the believers, the whole thing imploded into a religion. But the promises remained in the Scriptures (New Testament) - in the supposed words of Jesus the Son of God who, presumably shouldn't have been a liar. So, no matter that 2000 years had gone by, I, by faith, believed the words though I had to reject religion. I believed that the line to God was still opened for anyone crazy enough to believe that stuff. And I was that crazy. I wanted this, even if it meant a violent death. Anything was better than what this world had to offer - than that infamous and ubiquitous Matrix treadmill.
Bottom line? It was a hoax, ladies and gentlemen - a complete hoax. No matter how I went about it, there was that great, endless stone wall through which no sound or images could pass. God might as well have been dead. Jesus might as well never have existed, for all the difference it made. Well, that's not quite true . Christianity, in the name of God, Christ and Jesus has been very creative at starting wars, committing genocide and inventing new ways of torturing "non-believers," the so-called greatest Christian nation on earth being the very last one to officially give up on slavery. And the horror show continues apace, with much propaganda aimed at hiding the truth of the matter. Christianity, an officially acceptable terrorist organization invents or makes terrorists in its opponents' camps in order to hide its own sins. Machiavellian and properly Earthian (and perhaps even quite Heavenly - for it is also written that what one binds on earth is bound in heaven; what one loosens on earth is also loosed in heaven.)
Fact: there is no special "power" within any of the ranks of Christianity: it's a hoax. The institution is not only comfortably ensconced within the ranks of worldly power but in most cases forms the backbone of such power.
Therefore, based on simple observation and experience, what can one individual conclude about the whole thing? Doubt becomes the most trustworthy path. Believe all things, believe in nothing: perhaps that gets close to what Confucius was trying to say. To doubt means to empower oneself to ask the greater, perhaps the greatest, questions. Even if, as many Christians have warned me, I'm heading straight to hell with my questions and my doubt. From what Christians demonstrate on earth of the way things are in heaven, hell can't be that bad. How worse can it get? And who cares? Hell or Heaven; Republican or Democrat; Liberal or Conservative; Capitalist or Communist - it's always the same Matrix two-party system.
"A man, so it has been said, is distinguished from the creatures beneath him by his power to ask a question. To which we may add that one man is distinguished from another by the kind of question that he asks. A man is to be measured by the size of his question. Small men ask small questions: of here and now; of to-day and to-morrow and the next day; of how they may quickest fill their pockets, or gain another step upon the social ladder. Great men are concerned with great questions: of life, of man, of history, of God. So again, the size of an age can be determined by the size of its questions." (Arthur W. Robinson, D.D. - Warden of the College of Allhallows Barking – 1913)
Love ya!
Jane
It takes great courage to speak about changing the matrix for most people are sustained on its teat and wouldn't know what to do if deprived of it like a lost lamb deprived of the milk of its mother.
You didn't mention the story of Thomas, the doubter. Recently, a researcher has found evidence that Jesus Christ never existed, but was conveniently written into history by Romans seeking to control the rabble Jews and others who were seeking a Messiah. Conveniently, they wrote the story of Thomas to make sure that anyone who doubted would be taught a lesson that they should have blind faith and never question the resurrection or any other part of Christianity (you can substitute the dogma of any religion or cult for Christianity). Like you wrote, a convenient way to whitewash all inconsistencies, questions or doubt while everyone waits in pain to reach the promised land of heaven, conveniently after death so that it cannot be verified.
Ron
I have since added more to this in another forum.
Best regards,
Leland