"...atheists
are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak
speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far
as the legs of reason will carry them -- and then they leap.
I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw,
but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a
while. We must all pass through the
garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played
with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent
an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, 'My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?' then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is
akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
I love that last sentence in the quote, Jeannie! Doubt can be useful as it brings us closer to God, but if instead we use doubt as a means of avoiding movement at all the it's not really doubt but indecision.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point, Tim. I wonder if sometimes people are afraid that doubt will draw them further FROM God, so they push their doubts down inside and refuse to acknowledge them. But I don't think the people in the Bible who loved and pursued God model that approach.
DeletePi seems to be implying that agnosticism is like a decision not to decide. Interesting!