Just before we left on our most recent trip back to the Colorado Rockies, one of my very best friends sent me a tantalizing text, raising the issue of doubt. While I won’t name him here, he is a wonderful and remarkable man, with whom I have grown quite close in the last dozen years or so. He is honest and disarming, refreshingly candid and transparent. He is not one to let a platitude go without a challenge, although he does so with a glint in his eye and a humble heart.

There may be this misconception out there that Christians don’t doubt. As in, they (or we), once the commitment has been made, stand rock solid in this thing called faith which, itself, puts to rest questions and doubts. Well, I have to say, anyone who tells you this is not being honest.

No, life as a committed Christian or Jesus-follower does not put to bed the full array of needling thoughts that serve to make us wonder what’s really going on. And, while some Christians might bob and weave with a shrug of the shoulders and exclaim, “well, I guess it’s just a mystery,” I don’t believe that’s a good answer in the long run.

I’ll be the first to admit that the whole thing is pretty bizarre. We’re asked to swallow hook, line and sinker, this story that there really is an all-powerful God who had this son (who is God himself) and the son was born as a human, later saying and doing all sorts of things that seemingly didn’t make sense and, to many, still don’t, including saying that all who followed him would have eternal life. Fundamentally, he called upon his followers to fully surrender their hearts and minds to him. Later, this God/man was tortured and killed as he purportedly took upon himself “the sins of all mankind.” The encore (which in fact was the main event when all was said and done) was that he was “resurrected,” which basically means he’s fully alive after being dead. Crazy, I know.

And, some think it’s not ok to have questions and feel doubts? Like surrendering our minds is as simple as flipping a switch?

Of course, the number one doubt held by Christians is that we have it wrong. It’s all a big mistake. We got sucked in by the myth. The whole thing just isn’t true. Interestingly, a very well-known pastor and widely popular author, just renounced his Christianity, basically admitting just that. He’d got it wrong. This kind of thing does happen from time to time.

If one subscribes to the theology of the 17^thcentury French mathematician, physicist and theologian, Blaise Pascal, he of the now famous Pascal’s Wager, then doubt is central and it’s a matter of covering one’s bases. Briefly it goes like this: If you’re on the fence about whether this whole Christian thing is real or not, you have a simple choice which, in fact, is a bet. If you choose to accept the Christian claims and you’re right, you get eternal life in a very good place. If you’re wrong, you’ve lost nothing. Since there was nothing to begin with, you haven’t lost anything. On the other hand, if you choose to deny the validity of the Christian story and you’re right, you’ve gained nothing because there was nothing there. On the other hand, if you’re wrong, you’ve lost everything. So, says Pascal, cover your doubts and bet accordingly.

While I don’t particularly like his simple formula, I do like how it exposes the nature of doubt.

As a rational person, I am used to examining probabilities. Having taken Criminal Law in law school, read my share of books and watched enough crime-based TV shows and movies, I know a thing or two about proof. In addition, my studies in philosophy and interest in basic mathematics have all helped frame my understanding of how we find some things reliable and others not. I’m a firm believer that, in this life, perfect proof is a nearly unattainable construct in anything other than pure mathematics. In other words, doubt of any degree is a reasonable response for we mortals.

If you put 100 Christians under intense examination after giving them truth-serum, they’d all admit that they have doubts about this or that element of their belief. Of course, this goes true for everyone other than the lunatic. In my book, the lunatic here is the fanatic whose extremism has pushed him or her over the edge. It is the height of arrogance and stupidity, of irrationality. Such people build immense fortresses which are probably far more about protecting fear and broken places than about seeking truth.

If there is a God (as I attest) and his character is perfect Love and perfect Truth (as I believe), then an open inquiry into his nature and the claims by all belief systems is ideal.

And, open inquiry accepts the fundamental nature of doubt.

When we examine our culture today, especially the political one, we are battered by the strident and unbending shouts of mobs, all massively magnified by social media echo-chambers that demand unwavering allegiance. Doubt is simply unacceptable. Which only leads in one direction … and that is fanaticism and, ultimately, violence. (The greatest abject lessons in this occurred in the inevitable breakdown of the French Revolution during a period called Thermidor, and in the post-revolutionary periods of Soviet Russia and Communist China.) Doubt is just not countenanced. Individuals are cast out and even killed for being honest. Truth has nothing to do with facts in such places.

So, what should we do with our doubts?

Well, for starters, we should shed guilt for having them.

Second, we should find people with whom we can share them, even confidentially, without being overly concerned with how they are received. If Truth and Love go hand in hand, then this is a good starting point!

In the midst of all of this, it’s good to rethink the basics. Why did we believe the thing in the first place and has anything changed? Have we listened to others and do they have ideas that make sense? And, upon what do these alternative ideas stand? What lies at their base?

Perhaps, most importantly, retain some semblance of humility in that we just can’t explain everything. No one has a monopoly on wisdom, despite how they present themselves.

To be blunt, it’s about probabilities. By accepting that perfect proof is a very difficult or impossible thing to catch, we can manage our doubts by looking at the evidence born of our knowledge and experience. We trust things for a reason. Doubts are rational processes, whether they arise from feelings or not.

For people who are skeptical (doubtful) about Christianity, I’ll offer two possible avenues.

The first is to avoid falling into the trap that says the Christian story just isn’t true. In this line of thinking, it’s plainly a myth and completely inconsistent with our modern (scientific) sensibilities. Clearly, if the Christian story can’t be conclusively proven beyond any doubt, then the opposite is also true. Neither can atheism or any other belief system. Christianity should be held to the same standard as any other. Because of this problem, many people throw up their hands and say, “I just don’t know so I’ll go on doing the best I can in this life and let the chips fall how they may.” More and more people in western countries adopt this strategy.

The second is to actually spend some time investigating the story. Dive into the debate. Give Christianity a chance. Avoid judging its merits solely on what one sees in the media, especially regarding spectacular failures by church leaders. Seek out resources that address the validity of the various aspects of the story. Ask, “why are there so many examples of very bright skeptics, atheists, scientists who, after examining the evidence, conclude that the story is actually true?”

For Christians, doubt can be substantially diminished through a combination of reason, coupled with hope and promise. Yes, doubt is a constant feature of our lives and we all have difficulty grasping God’s big plan when there is so much suffering and evil in this world. We can try to process theological explanations of why this is the case but sometimes that just doesn’t work or satisfy. It still doesn’t make sense. When this happens, I frequently rewind the tape to locate the things that do make sense, but would not if God did not exist and love me and everyone else. They wouldn’t make sense if there was no such thing as perfect justice.

As I’ve written before, it all comes down to the fundamental issue of whether we believe we are just particles in a completely material, random and meaningless universe or that there is a Designer … and if the latter is true, why is Jesus the most obvious pick from amongst all of the explanations?

Was the story made up? Was there really a Jesus? And, if there was, does his message and example really resonate? (After all, he said some very strange stuff.)

For me, I can’t find anything in the record of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection that doesn’t make sense given all of the evidence. And then there are my earth-shaking revelations along with daily experiences that leave no alternative.

Is doubt alive? Of course. Are the hope and promise alive? Absolutely. Is Jesus who he said he was? Bet on it.