My cousin Dan, who wrote the excellent 2009: a year of disappointments post, chimed in with a great quote on doubt, which I felt was worth posting here. Here’s his comment from facebook.
Good thoughts. Refreshing. It’s hard for me not to get at least a little annoyed when someone says doubting is always wrong.
George MacDonald wrote, “Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood. Doubts must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region higherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed.”
It’s an interesting thought to consider and has influenced my thoughts about doubts.
It’s an interesting idea indeed. Although it’s a little different, I also like Kierkegaard’s stance that faith does not exist without doubt. For Kierkegaard, to have faith is also to acknowledge that one doubts that which they have faith in. For to not have doubts is not faith, but is something that can be based in fact. Here’s a short quote from him on faith and doubt: “doubt is conquered by faith, just as it is faith which has brought doubt into the world.”
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