My last post on Harris was on plausibility structures and how they create a reality that seems real to people, whether it is or not. Twenty first century plausibility secular structures are also important to the issue of doubt. Christians at a disadvantage in these discussions because doubt is assumed to be a one way street: Christians either believe (have faith) or doubt; if they doubt they no longer believe, if they believe they don’t doubt. This way of looking at faith and doubt puts Christians on the defensive because it assumes that belief and doubt are uniquely religious, in this case Christian, things. It takes about 10 seconds to realize this is ridiculous, yet Christians too often talk and write as if such secular assumptions are true.
Faith and doubt, in fact, are requirements of finite human existence and not religious concepts at all. More on this shortly, but a good example that the irreligious experience faith and doubt are testimonies of two ex-atheists. One is Christian apologist David Wood, and the other is Wood interviewing French theologian Guillaume Bignon. I very much encourage you to check these out because these once arrogant atheists were challenged to question their own beliefs, and found them wanting. They eventually embraced Christianity because they first doubted their atheist/materialist worldview; they could no longer justify their faith.
My point is one that is invisible (in a secular worldview) in the discussion of people who, like Harris, reject the Christian faith they once embraced:
- Joshua Harris’ rejection of Christianity does not mean he can escape living by faith or with doubt.
Faith and doubt are inescapable because trust is essential to being human. Faith is simply trust based on adequate evidence. When we feel we can rely on the evidence (or the character or knowledge of someone, i.e., authority) we trust it, and thus have faith. When we feel we can’t, we doubt, and thus don’t trust it. Our epistemology, what we know, is rooted in what we can’t know directly or perfectly. Some examples will make this clear.
- When you buy lettuce at the grocery story, you have faith (trust) that it won’t harm you. Do you know with absolute certainty it won’t? Of course not, but you buy it anyway. Then you read or hear about an Ebola outbreak affecting lettuce and people getting sick or dying: doubt! Do you know with absolute certainty that a little virus you can’t see is attaching itself to lettuce, and that it could kill you? No! But you trust (have faith) in the reporting, the doctors, the scientists, the government, and you do not buy lettuce! The point is a simple one: We can’t prove everything we take to be true or factual. We don’t live that way. We must trust (have faith), or not (doubt), and act accordingly.
- For some people getting on an airplane requires a massive amount of faith filled with doubt, but for others their faith in the safety of the plane gets barely a second thought. Do you know with absolute certainty you won’t die as you board the plane? Can you prove you won’t? Nope, you must trust (have faith), or not (doubt), and act accordingly.
- You can multiple the examples forever. Should I marry this person, or not? Go to this school, or not? Get in the car late at night with a bunch of my teenage friends who’ve been drinking, or not? Trust that the surgeon won’t kill me?
But when it comes to Christianity in our secular cultural environment, we are forced to proved what can’t be proved, and doesn’t need to be. The point we must always come back to is this: If we don’t believe X, then we believe Y. What is the evidence for X? Is it better than for Y? If we think it is we’ll trust it, if not we won’t. Religion is simply another aspect of life where we either trust the evidence, or we don’t.
Notice also that faith is not about my subjective feelings or experience, and doesn’t determine if the object of my trust is true or not. It either is or isn’t, and my faith can’t determine which it is. This common sense fact is especially difficult for postmodern people who believe that something can be true for one person and not true for another simply because they believe it. Of course most people reject this common sense when it comes to religion and morality (specifically sexual morality), but never when they get on an airplane or buy their lettuce.
Although I don’t know Joshua Harris, I’m fairly certain he didn’t reject Christianity because he examined all the evidence, and could no longer trust that the Jesus of the gospels is his crucified and risen Savior. At least he didn’t mention anything like this when he told the world that he no longer believed in Christianity. Whatever the source of his doubts about the veracity of Christianity, I’m confident it had nothing to do with evidence. Maybe one day he’ll doubt his doubts.
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