what can cause someone to seriously question their faith?

Answer 1

For me, it was all the death I grew up with, along with questions that no one could answer, combined with the hypocrisy in every church I had ever attended.
I gave up on God. I'm glad He didn't give up on me.

Answer 2

Well there's "can" and "should". Unfortunately many people question their faith with inadequate reason and fail to question aspects of their faith when they have ample reason to do so.

A person should question an aspect of their belief when it appears that that aspect contradicts reason, either the

- rest of the faith (the faith is inconsistent)
- other bases of belief
- direct evidence

For example part of some people’s Christian faith is a belief that the creation story in Genesis is literally true. I would say that there is ample evidence to REVISE this view, unfortunately they don’t even seem to QUESTION the view.

Another example is a part of the Quran I read promising a nice life to Muslims and a nasty one to non-Muslims. Now if part of someones faith is that this is always the case then that part of the person’s faith needs revising: its patently untrue.

But this is just tinkering at the edges. Your question was about questioning a faith as a whole, right? In which case I think it’s the same reason – the faith as a whole is incompatible either with itself or with other bases of belief and knowledge. This could come about in two ways: either an accumulation of little inconsistencies or one BIG one that blows the whole thing out of the water.

Unfortunately the way most people approach their faith is blind – they won’t see either an accumulation or one big thing.

Answer 3

Whether they are being controlled could make someone question their faith. Some religions, just make people feel like they should just go along and follow without questions. That is seriously wrong, no matter whether a person is Christian, Catholic, Muslim or Jewish. Also, some religions make the females feel inferior and subservant...That's wrong, and if I were in a religion that promoted any of those attitudes, I would call it a cult..( I was in one, and left for those reasons)
Any religion that tells you what to believe, and doesn't want you to check it out and prove something to yourself SHOULD make someone seriously question their faith.
God Bless you.

Answer 4

Intelligence causes someone to question their faith. Everyone should question their faith as a matter of course or it is just a meaningless thing and you are just going through the motions.

Answer 5

"I was once a born-again Christian. Now I believe it’s all rubbish!"

When a person maintains that he was once a Christian, but came to his senses, he is saying that he once knew the Lord (see John 17:3). Ask him, "Did you know the Lord?" He will then be forced to say, "I thought I did!" This gives you license to gently say, "If you don’t know so, then you probably didn’t." If he didn’t know the Lord, he was therefore never a Christian (1 John 5:11–13,20).

Explain to him that the Bible speaks of false conversion, in which a "stony ground" hearer receives the Word with joy and gladness. Then, in a time of tribulation, temptation, and persecution, falls away. If he is open to reason, take him through the Ten Commandments, into the message of the cross, and the necessity of repentance and faith in the Savior.

Answer 6

I think if you have found faith, you'll never question it.

People questions belief and faith usually they inherited from their parents or ancestors.

But there is nothing wrong with it.Its the key to know and learn the truth, or otherwise be thankful that you are in the right way.

Answer 7

Believers daily face many, many situations that can lead them to question their faith. In my opinion, I think that's a natural part of religion; it strengthens, not weakens, faith to continually strive to answer questions about beliefs by the guidance of the Holy Book, logic, science and of course, the mind and heart.

Answer 8

upgrading brain from Beta Version 1.0 to Intel 9.0 can certainly have that effect. lol

seriously speaking, I guess if someone puts his or her faith on one thing and that turns out to cause doubts or he/she figures it out to be false, it can have a devastating effect on the person's faith and morale.

that is why you see the non-Muslims trying in vain to undermine the Quran since that is what the Muslims put their trust on. Alhamdulillah that it is a living miracle :)

contrast this with the confusing ideologies of other religions and you'll see why it is so easy to find holes in their arguments. Also why the world is rapidly moving towards Islam. Or in the absence of knowledge of Islam, Atheism.

Answer 9

When faith is asking them to ignore strong evidence that contradicts it, that's when faith tends to get questioned.

If I said "there's an invisible elephant standing over there", that's one thing. A person could have faith in that. There wouldn't be strong evidence for it, but there wouldn't be strong evidence against it, either.

However, imagine that I said "there's an invisible elephant in that phone both over there, and he just called your cell phone." In the latter case, the person has more reason to disbelieve, if his cell phone didn't ring. (If he knew his ringer was on, at least.)

Answer 10

In every ones life there is tragedy and loss it's a normal feeling to question your faith especially during these times. In our world today life is crazy and the media portrays nothing but doom and gloom. I'd say to you hang in their things will become clearer hopefully in time. Remember no one lives in your shoes only you.

Answer 11

Most people inherit their parent’s faith, and I believe that most people will not do enough questioning of their inherited faiths unless they are exposed to other faiths.