In the spirit of the new Hobbit movie that is out I would like to point out the one thing that unites every human being in the world. It unites the left the right. The theist, agnostic, and atheist. It unites the east and west, past and present and even the future. Everyone has it. Everyone thinks it.

Everyone has doubt.

It is the thing that brings us all together. Regardless of creed, color, gender, status, or time you lived. We are unified in our ability to doubt. If you encounter a religious person who never doubts then I would say you are encountered a liar.

If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself; “Can I believe it all again today?” No, better still, don’t ask till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer is always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and great laughter.
-Frederick Buechner