BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, PART 2 D
oubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong; it may be a sign that he is thinking.” Oswald Chambers I read a story in the New York Times about a pastor in the Bible belt who became an atheist leader.1 His name is Jerry DeWitt. He first experienced doubts about his religious beliefs when he questioned the idea of hell. He could no longer worship a “god” who would torture people forever, but he was convinced that was what the Bible said. When he expressed his doubts, many people in the church, the people he loved, basically damned him to hell. Because of his doubts, he lost his marriage, his job and his friends. I empathized with this pastor and posted his story on Facebook. I thought I could challenge friends who read it to be merciful to those who doubt, but AUTHOR Kevin McGill some people argued that I shouldn’t be sympathetic. They wondered why I would defend an atheist who was “leading many people astray.” I believe wrestling with questions is the best way to learn. A math book helps you learn math by giving you problems. If you only memorize the answers in the back you don’t learn the math. Likewise rehearsed answers
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for Bible problems don’t help. Giving people answers without helping them wrestle with the questions isn’t education — it’s indoctrination. Before judging someone for not believing in God, we should seek to understand the “god” they don’t believe in. We need to stop arguing for the existence of God until we can understand the true character of God. In many cases we should be affirming people’s unbelief rather than arguing against it. Heather Thompson Day, a communication professor, shares an example of what this may look like. She had a conversation with a secular friend who said, “I don’t like this idea that there is this man
