It is not wrong to have doubts about God’s existence. The truth is that everyone deals with doubts from time to time. But even while experiencing doubt, one can still have faith in God. It is wonderful that you doubt. The capacity that you doubt is the equivalent capacity that you have for faith. If there is no doubt, there is no place for faith to work in your life. If you do not have doubt and uncertainty, then there is no purpose for faith. For example, you can’t experience great pleasure unless there has been great pain. In the same way, you cannot experience faith until you have struggled with doubt. René Descartes actually used his doubts as an argument for God. Here is how he argued his point:
Premise A: I am doubting and the more I doubt, the more sure I am doubting.
Premise B: If I am doubting, I am thinking since doubting is a form of thinking.
Premise C: But my doubt is an imperfect form of thinking since it lacks certitude.
Premise D: But if I know my thoughts are imperfect, then it means I must be aware of the perfect since I cannot judge something is imperfect unless I know the perfect which it is not.
Premise E: My imperfect mind cannot be the cause of the idea of perfection that I have and by which I judge things to be imperfect.
Premise F: Only a perfect mind is an adequate cause for the idea of perfection.
Conclusion: Therefore, a perfect Mind must exist as the cause of my perfect idea. This perfect mind is God.
Faith doesn’t run away from doubt, but towards it. Faith takes courage and bravery. Living what you already know does not take any courage—there is no adventure or risk involved. When you go into the unknown, it is scary, it is suspenseful. Faith is having courage to go into the unknown. The tension between faith and doubt is where life is lived. It is where the ultimate is possible. As an unknown author wrote, “Reason can bring us to the precipice, but only faith can make us leap and fly.”
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About the Author: Dr. Daniel King is a missionary evangelist who has traveled to over seventy nations in his quest for souls. His goal is to lead 1,000,000 people to Jesus every year through massive Gospel Festivals, distribution of literature, and leadership training. Because of his experience and research on evangelism, he is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in mass evangelism. As an evangelist, he has a deep interest in using apologetics to convince skeptics that God is real.
