“There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
I’m confused. Human beings seem to crave certainty…all the while fully reveling in mystery? What do you think we more fully appreciate? Certainty or mystery?
Despire our love for a good detective novel, or murder investigation, I believe we begin to become frayed at the edges, if we cannot have clear black and white areas in our life.
Doubt it seems, is our enemy.
I recently watched a movie called Doubt.
The movie, tackles the subject of doubt masterfully, and it never releases you from having to wrestle with an overwhelming amount of uncertainty.
“What do you do when you’re not sure…” begins the priest, played by Phillipp Seymour Hofmann, in one of the opening scenes of this movie.
He later concludes that in the face of despair, whether stricken with a private calamity of sickness, guilt…or doubt…to remember the virtues of suffering together.
“Your bond with your fellow human being…was your despair…Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty…”
Watch the first part in this movie here:
All around us, we are plunged into mystery, that seems to raise a fist at any inclination we may have to blindly obey.
When people come promising only certainty. I grow wary.
- I will not blindly obey
When plunged into a genuine “crisis of faith”.
- I will not blindly cling to certainty.
Respect your uncertainty.
By so doing we fight back the persuasive sway of these momentous forces. That call you to believe without question, and offer you guilt in response to your questions.
It’s sometimes hard…we sometimes, non thinkingly…succumb…but in the end…our conscience demands a more mature, and genuine response.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is absurd.”-Voltaire
So what do you think about doubt? Does it have any redeeming virtues? Yes? No? In-between? Do not care?
Written by Veron Graham
Topics: Blog, Life