On Doubt

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” – James 1:6

                Christianity has made a number of contributions to the world of religions. One of the more prominent has been the elevation of faith to imperative status. Since the Protestant reformation, in particular, faith has come to enjoy a central place among Christian tenets. Faith is the source of great power, a power capable of moving mountains, even providing eternal salvation. Accordingly, its antithesis, doubt, must be avoided. One could even interpret Christian scripture and teachings to say that to doubt is to sin. The only value doubt could add in this system would be to provide the Christian something to overcome with faith. Here, I challenge this arrangement and submit that doubt can be, and more often than not, is a good. I value doubt because it tempers action when zealous belief would have me rush into an unwise situation. And yet, doubt spurs me to take action, to explore and research a claim more thoroughly because I doubt its veracity. Furthermore, doubt can create possibility and open new venues for new innovation in thought. While it is not without its pitfalls and must be incorporated in a life with temper and balance, doubt is a necessary value.

                Doubt is a state of disbelief, the opposite of faith. We can understand doubt best as a mental state that occurs when we confront a claim that falls short of being plausible or even possible. The salesman approaches me with a vacuum cleaner selling for thousands of dollars and argues that it will bring value to my life by providing me with the cleanest carpets I have ever had. Layered in his elaborate sales pitch are a number of claims that spur doubts within me. In this mundane scenario, I doubt that the vacuum cleaner is really worth that much. I doubt that the cleanliness of my carpets plays that large of a role in my life. I also doubt that this vacuum cleaner is significantly better than the one I already have. These doubts rise unbidden. We use conscious effort to recognize doubt but not to produce it. From practiced habit and a multitude of prior experiences, I do not see the salesman’s claims as being plausible. I sense, immediately, that he overstates what truths may exist within his pitch. In this encounter, I doubt strongly. Doubt is a mental response that draws upon our experience and understanding of truth and reality when we confront a given claim or system of knowing.

                Doubt brings pause to action. A skeptical stance towards any venture produces much needed caution. Whether leaping after something of our own design or consenting to participate in another’s plan, doubt can save us from misfortune. One of the main values the brain brings to our species is its capacity to forecast or make predictions about our future and environmental conditions. We take much of the information we receive through our senses to map out norms and construct base expectations. Our brain notes experiences in cause and effect, and relationships between disparate items as well as conflicts and their outcomes. All of this happens to the end that we can successfully navigate the multitude of ever changing variables that confront us each day.

I remember a number of years ago, when I was a young man in my early twenties, an acquaintance about my age came to my home with another older man. He presented me with a business deal that sounded amazing. I did not have to front a bunch of money or go into debt. I would commit to it part time to start and then expand as I got more successful. I would become a part of an organization dedicated to my success. They both painted a picture of me fulfilling all of my financial dreams by joining them. I felt excited. Their narrative possessed the right balance of plausibility and possibility. I wanted to pursue the venture. Unwittingly, though, a doubt emerged: what if this is too good to be true? That little doubt proved enough to keep me from making any commitments at that time. I researched the matter further the next day and discovered that my doubt had been well placed: the golden opportunity had been a scam. Drawing upon some amalgam of experience and knowledge, I had a doubt and the pause it brought to my action saved me a great deal of trouble. Doubt does not only bring about pause though.

                Doubt has spurred me on to action as many times as it has tempered my actions. As a child I was presented the world and given a simple account for why it works the way it does. The superficial explanations appeared plausible. I accepted them, for a time. Then, doubt crept in and I had to search out the truth. I have pursued this pattern innumerable times and each time numerous hours of research began with a sense of doubt. One such time of spurred action began in my early teenage years.

Like many young children I had a fascination with Native Americans and their culture. I suppose it started with the simple activity of playing “cowboys and Indians” or my fascination with the television series The Lone Ranger. Perhaps the image of their wild freedom and exotic otherness played a part as well. I wondered why they no longer ranged large on the world scene.  I read accounts in my family’s daily study of the Book of Mormon that explained their demise as a result of having “dwindled in unbelief” (1 Nephi 12:23). In that account Native American ancestors once had the true gospel of Jesus Christ but became wicked. The consequence was God then gave the Gentiles (Europeans) the Americas for an inheritance. Essentially, the Native Americans had the land but God took it from them due to their unrighteousness and gave it to the invading Europeans. While this simplistic explanation harmonized with other things I was being taught, I doubted part of it. I struggled in a particular way with the claim that Native Americans or their culture was wicked. I admired so much of it (I was very guilty of romanticizing it all). In this state of doubt, I found further study and research to be the natural course of action. I went to the library and read books on the Iroquois and Sioux among more general histories about trappers and mountain men. These readings expanded my understanding of the actual historical context and turned into an ongoing inquiry that has extended across much of my life (most recently in reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which has offered some of the best explanations to that initial question I have read so far). If I had not doubted, I would not have acted and sought out more information on the topic. The initial answer to my question would have sufficed and I would not have expanded my knowledge and understanding to the degree I have. My doubt moved me to act and grow.

Doubt also spurs creativity and opens up new possibilities. This aspect of the value of doubt is most evident in a historical context. Great breakthroughs in science, medicine, art, philosophy, social justice, and civilization have started with doubt. A doubt that questioned the received tradition, the predominate way of doing things, or the simple assumptions of their progenitors. For over two thousand years the theory that the ability to cure diseases and be healthy depended upon a careful balance of the body’s humors (fluids) ruled largely unquestioned. I imagine that techniques based on this approach did have ameliorating effects on many ailments. Then, the Bubonic plague infected much of Europe in the fourteenth century. We have not encountered a more devastating epidemic since. Historians estimate that this disease killed a third of Europe’s population in just three years. The medical treatments based on a balance of humors did not work in the face of the Black Death. They failed utterly as entire towns and cities died out in a matter of weeks. This failure planted the seed of doubt in the minds of scholars and doctors. The doubts that followed spurred on an inquiry that combined with other historical trends and events to emerge into a scientific system based on the use of reason and evidence within a community of critical thinkers. Through this method, medical science eventually discovered that microorganisms caused diseases like the Bubonic plague. With this accurate understanding medical scientists could develop effective treatments. It took scientists centuries following that initial doubt to discover germ theory, but it all began with the doubt that the current model was not what it claimed to be.  

The role of doubt within history can hardly be overstated. Doubt has been that first step in numerous creative and innovative ventures. Many of the institutions and developments we enjoy today all began with a doubt. Doubt clears out space for a new inquiry. It opens up venues for creativity. It produces possibility. Doubt induces one to come up with something better, more accurate, or more just. Doubt is the first step in liberation. In Doubt: a History, Jennifer Michael Hecht says concerning doubt:

It seems to have a knack for generating and popularizing very useful theories. In atomism, anthropology, and cosmology, in politics and neurology, we now hold doubters’ doctrines. It is not a coincidence: doubters have wanted to know how the world works and expected to find answers in the world around them. Doubt has been a disproportionately industrious and dynamic stream of human culture and cosmology, espoused by such productive figures as Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, Frederick Douglas and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Socrates and Sigmund Freud—it gets a lot done (486).

Even a cursory look at doubt across history suggests its essential role within our progress as a human civilization.

                Although the ever faithful believer described by the apostle Paul may view doubt as a sin, doubt is in fact a value that we should not repress, shun, or shame. We cannot remain in our doubts, however. Through acknowledging and acting on those doubts that arise we can fruitfully navigate our way through this world. Whether bringing pause to hasty action or spurring us on to pursue further understanding and a new approach, doubt is the key to open doors to a better future.