Barry writes , "Unexamined faith is fragile," and I wholeheartedly agree. But my argument that doubt is the enemy of faith is by no means an endorsement of an unexamined faith, though I must admit that I anticipated such a misunderstanding. Again, let me cite James 1:
5If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
So the scripture salutes the quest for greater knowledge, wisdom and understanding. And certainly that process presumes a willingness to change one's mind, admits mistakes, and discard convictions that are no longer credible in the light of greater truth.
But for James, doubt is not the engine of such a quest. It is certainly not "the ants in the pants of faith, what gets us moving in the direction of the holy in spite of ourselves."
It is, rather, the corrosive force that calls into question the worthiness of the project. Doubt sneers at the hope that a Good God waits to answer our questions. Doubt holds in contempt the confession that God is for us, not against us. Doubt wonders whether we ought to bother in the first place.
P.S. My most recent thoughts about Doubting Thomas are here, and I do think that Christ's blessing of those who believe without seeing contains an implied rebuke of Thomas' skepticism.
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