If i doubt, does it mean i have no faith?

Question

Thanks to all your answers. Have a great day!

Answer 1

In the past I hae beloged to church groups that said I lacked faith or I was an unbeliever because I dared to ask questions.

Faith is a skill or attribute that improves with practice. I play table tennis and I have faith in my ability to defeat an average player because I have good serves developed over years of practice. Currently I have not been playing much and had a few losses to players I could confidently beat.

It is quite easy to delude yourself that you have faith in God, religion or yourself if your faith is not tested by real situations.

I have spent several years studying the Bible, and scientific evidence for God or supernatural influences. There are some things that I have found that point away from some aspects of christian beliefs.

My scientific studies suggest that there are cosmic intelligences outside our realms of time and space, and that many things in the universe happem for reasons, or plans beyound our understanding. E.g. our universe seems to be an evolved living creature originating from the mixture of attribute from parent universes. If our universe is a creature with a finite life span capable of sexual reproduction, we might assume that we are like living cells inside a cosmic body. We might also assume our universe has fears, hopes and dreams like ourselves.

I have aslo had experiences in my life like to attribute to supernatural influence. My relience or faith in a possible source of such experiences increases as I exercise faith that my previous experiences will continue.

In my own situation I have found prayer or visualization has been an effective tool in bringing opportunities to me but I need to develop my confidence in making the most of such situations.

Almost any skill develops like this: Developing psychic powers, sporting prowess or better social skills takes practice. You start off by trying something easy. If the skill is one you can learn you eventually have more success with ever harder skills. The more you have sucess the more more canfidence of faith you have.

Some churches say faith is different to confidence in that it is confidence in the unseen or illogical. People can believe things because of peer pressure or because simpler explanations are generally more pleasing to the mind.

Psychologists would describe such thinking as delusional.

We can however have faith in things that we cannot support scientifically. We can for example gain wisdom from out right side of the brain that gives us vibes of situations, but does not provide us with a logical explanation of how the conclusions are reached.

Computers use similar methods to write neural net based(voice, handwriting etc) recognition software. These machines can say what feel right to them but they cannot prove they are correct, but they are more accurate in many cases than explanatory programs.

Our faith in such gut reactions should be based on whether it works for us. If something works we trust it more.

I had some friends who were mentally retarded but claimed to see the appostles regularly visiting them in their kitchen. They would pray for help and parcels tended to appear on their doorstep. From their point of view life was simple they pray and thaey are looked after.

It is possible that people of less faith chose to send them the parcels. Maybe their actions were motivated by evolved tendencies to help out the weak, or maybe God touched the hearts of the carers or maybe God zapped the goodies on the doorstep.

I never saw the disciples or any other apparitions. I was told I lacked faith. My psychology teacher suggested they were having a mass hulucination.

I have my suspicians of people who claim supernatural skills or faith in prayer etc., even though I have had experiences myself that I attribute to supernatural intervention or abilities.

When I go shopping I often see a very cheap looking car advertising the psychic abilities of the owner. If I had significant predictive abilities I might be tempted to take to gambling on the Lotto or stock market, and buy a new car.

Look at the people who say have faith. Does it work for them?

If it does work you can loose some of the bath water and still keep the baby.

Answer 2

Hi Third P.

No Third P, just because you have some doubt, it doesn't mean that you have no faith. It is actually quite normal to occasionally have these feelings.

However, if you ALWAYS have feelings of doubt, then your faith is not yet solid. You need to study more, pray more & learn more. Then see where that takes you. But I have a sense that this is not you.

As I said, everyone occasionally has doubt. Even Jesus Christ had His moments of doubt. God loves us & knows what is in our hearts.

If you find yourself in a time of doubt, pray more, study more until something causes you to find an answer. God will help lead you to the answers you seek.

Do not worry too much about it. God knows you & loves you, even with all your human frailties.

Peace.

Answer 3

By no means. Good faith is predicated on a reasonable doubt. Blind faith is no faith. Faith is a relationship built on trust and love. Where there is no doubt, there is no test. Where there is no test how do you establish trust? Love that has no proof lacks the history to show permanence and will fade like a passing shadow.

[I'm glad someone else has read Abelard.]

Answer 4

No, doubt and disbelief are two distinct things

disbelief is the belief that "this is not true"

Doubt is a more personal unsurity, born out of the inherent condition in human life that we can never know everything, we can doubt about the future or our Faith, but all it is, is a fear that "what if it is not like that."

You can have doubts about your future, that does not mean you disbelieve you can have a great future, you just don't -know- how it will turn out.

So with Faith.

Answer 5

Others have said it better than I, but I'd like to weigh in. It has certainly been my doubting and questioning that have brought me to the faith that is expanding within me. Every doubt created questions that drove me toward a search, turning sometimes in one direction and other times pointing toward a sidepath, a branching. Every question and direction consistently brought further insight. I think of the mustard seed, and how, for me the seed of faith had to have been contained in my doubt. It is a joy to be alive. I am content. I am Siriusly content.

Answer 6

Doubt is the alloy that strengthens the steel of faith.

Doubt is the flexible tree that stands firm in the storm.

Doubt is not the enemy of faith but the thing that makes it all the stronger.

If you choose the right path then it is much stronger than having no choice at all.

Blind obedience is not obedience. Faith doesn't have to be blind faith.

Answer 7

What do you doubt? More importantly, what do you believe? Those are the questions you'd need to ask in order to determine whether or not you have faith.

Answer 8

Faith is trust, religion. You can doubt to religion,you called seeker.

Answer 9

No- it could mean that you have not looked deep enough to find the answers to what you are looking for. There are so many bogus religions out there and they mislead people. So if one has doubt they should continue to search for the Truth and pray for God to kindly reveal. Because the Truth is always there.

Answer 10

first, prove faith works. what is your basis of faith? What do you have faith in and why? Why believe something is true if common sense and reason shows you with proof that what you believe in does not exist? If you have religious troubles, is your religion worth following if it has involved itself with murder, rape, robbery, torture, and slavery as theology? Whose word do we have that what we are being told really comes from the divine? People have been telling others their way is THE way for thousands of years. Isn't it time they actually prove what they have taught? Does god really know what they claim he is saying?

Answer 11

If you do not have faith in your ability to identify a contradiction to cause you doubt, then whatever faith you have is worth less.

The Will is positive, the Judgment is negative.