Thursday, August 1, 2013

On Doubt as a call to Faith


I know I am grateful for a propensity to doubt,
because it gives me the capacity to freely believe. ...

The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart,
to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles
and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true
and which we have reasonable ....
                                        ...but not certain grounds for believing to be true. 

There must be grounds for doubt ...
                                         ...as well as belief,
 in order to render the choice more truly a choice, ...
                                              ...and therefore the more deliberate,
and laden with personal vulnerability and investment.










An overwhelming preponderance of evidence on either side 
would make our choice as meaningless 
as would a loaded gun pointed at our heads.





 (Terryl Givens; Letter to a doubter)