Talk:Doubt

Some good quotes

I don’t condone everything these men have said, taught, or done, but these quotes have resonated with me:

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 reflection.
—Timothy Keller^[1]

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
—René Descartes^[2]

To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.^[3]

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
—Frederick Buechner ^[4]

If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it—the life of that man is one long sin against mankind. . . .

“But,” says one, “I am a busy man; I have no time for the long course of study which would be necessary to make me in any degree a competent judge of certain questions, or even able to understand the nature of the arguments.”

Then he should have no time to believe.

—William K. Clifford^[5]

In all affairs—love, religion, politics, or business—it’s a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

—Bertrand Russell^[6]

J.A.C. Redford on why he left Mormonism

While I had my share of difficult times, my early years were basically happy ones. My life was essentially one of privilege, and I was a dedicated consumer of experience. I moved through my days with the sort of self-absorption that assumed that God was on my side and that He was actively interested in my having a very good time.

The LDS Church was the hub around which everything else revolved. It was the grid through which my family observed and understood the world. It provided a cosmology, a community, a moral framework, and a sense of purpose that we accepted implicitly. Because of this, I grew up with a strong sense of values, fundamental principles that I still affirm today. With the clarity of hindsight, three of these values stand out most significantly.

The first is faith. Stated most simply, I was brought up to believe in God. Despite the disagreements we now have about who this God really is—and I do believe that who He is matters—I’m profoundly grateful to my family for making the idea of having faith at all credible to me from my earliest years. I feel this gratitude most when I talk with those who were raised without faith, who have only themselves to rely on when hard times come or when they feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the evil in the world. They have to travel so far to begin believing in God at all, let alone in His goodness and love.

The second value is that of reason. I was taught that truth was objective, absolute, and universal, and that I could actually know something about it. I learned early that reason and faith were not enemies but complemented one another.

The third value is integrity. I understood that my life ought to be consistent with the things I believed and that I had an obligation to stand up for my convictions, no matter the cost. I learned that faith must not be passive, but must express itself actively and authentically in the world. I grew up with the belief that lying and artificiality were shameful.

I have my family to thank for this, and I do thank them—with all of my heart. In the end, I left Mormonism because of these values, not in spite of them.^[7]

Things I have questions or doubts about

• If apostolic succession wasn’t supposed to be a thing, how and in what sense was Paul an apostle?
• Who can baptize? Only ordained ministers or any believer?
• If infants should be baptized, why shouldn’t they also partake of the Lord’s supper?
• The empirical evidence for an old earth and biological evolution seems undeniable. How can this be reconciled with creatio ex nihilo and a historical Adam?

1. Keller, T. (2008). The reason for God: Belief in an age of skepticism. (Kindle ed., p. xvi–xviii). New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. #
2. Darling, D. (2004). The universal book of mathematics. (p. 90). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. #
3. Holmes, O. (1915). Ideals and doubts. Illinois Law Review, 10, 3. #
4. Buechner, Frederick (1973). Wishful Thinking, 23. #
5. Clifford, William K. (1877). “The Ethics of Belief.” The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays (Prometheus Books). Retrieved from [1]. #
6. As quoted in The Reader’s Digest, Vol. 37 (1940), p. 90; no specific source given. #
7. Redford, J.A.C. (1997). Welcome all wonders: A composer’s journey. (p. 28). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. #