More from Patience With God

Patience with God is a book by Thomas Halik is a book on my to read list as the result of hearing recent MockingCast episode. In this episode it was raised that a portion of Halik's thesis is that the difference between being a theist and an atheist is patience in relation to doubt. It is a misnomer to think that theists are people without doubts or that atheists do not believe in things they cannot explain. The atheist is not wrong in their doubt (many Christians define theology as "faith seeking understanding"), the difference is that the theist is willing to ensure doubt rather than resolve it.

I don't know how it is that God became human in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I don't know how it is that we are reconciled with God through the cross. I don't understand the nature of the Trinity nor do I understand many of the faith claims of Christianity.

What I do know is that I have a lot of respect for the atheists that I know. Their work to resolve doubt is noble. It is however been my lived experience that doubt can never fully be explained. With every new discovery there are new questions and doubts. Thus, the posture that I believe leads to a mature life is that of learning how to endure doubt.

I know that I do not have the knowledge how to endure doubt, I do not have the strength to endure doubt on my own. These are just two of the reasons that I am engaged in a faith community. A community that can help me endure doubt.

The one thing that unites us all

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 

Stuff you should know any why - pt. 7 (final)

The Doubt Essential to Faith - TED Talk by Lesley Hazelton

You should know this not only because this Jewish woman writes a bio about Muhammad but because her overall point on why being without doubt is being a fundamentalist. 

I also wonder if there is much rage in the Muslim world toward this Hazelton in the same way there was in the Christian world toward Reza Aslan and his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth? Even though it is clear that what Hazelton expresses is that Muhammad had A LOT of doubt about his experience - which is counter to the dominate narrative about Muhammad and the faith of Islam on the whole, no? 

Enjoy!