-Doubt and Awe

The notion of embracing doubt seems to becoming a popular antidote to what is considered inappropriate dogma and certainty in Christianity by those of us who think we have knowledge of true things about god, true beliefs. Truth. Doubt keeps the mystery and awe of "faith." It maintains humility, supposedly.

I’m getting tired of hearing it, as though doubt is more profound than knowledge. Doubt purposely preserves vagueness. Familiarity, knowledge, builds respect, love, admiration….That’s how it works in our human relationships. How profound would it be if you nurtured doubt about your spouse, rather than growing in your knowledge of her?

To claim knowledge of something, including God, doesn’t imply mastery or exhaustive knowledge, or even superiority over others. Fostering doubt isn’t the antidote to the perceived problem.

Dr. House, the offensive TV doctor who is religiously antagonistic, said something apropos to a magician he was pestering for the secrets to his tricks, who wanted to preserve the mystery:

Mystery and knowledge are quite compatible. Claiming to know true things isn’t a claim of exhaustive knowledge or superiority. In fact, when learning about a being as awesome as God, the more we learn about Him, the more we recognize how superior He is to us, the more we realize He ultimately is fathomless. We can truly marvel at how vast and deep knowing God is when we study and contemplate on the meaning of His attributes. And that turns to worship and humility before Him.

We don’t have to give up on knowledge to preserve mystery. We can delve deep for knowledge, pursue truth, strain to understand as much as we can, stretch our minds, come to beautiful conclusions about God – and still be in awe.