16/11/2025
Weekly Story
The Doubt Side of Faith
By Jesse Richards, adapted
I grew up thinking that “faith” and “doubt” were opposites. Faith was good. Doubt was bad. With that mindset, even questions could be dangerous, as I figured they could lead to doubt. For an intellectually curious person, that is a difficult thing to deal with, and I struggled with it for most of my life.
At one point, I had what seemed to me a revelation, and which I have since learned to be something many people of faith agree on: Doubt is not the enemy of faith, but can in fact make it stronger. Answers need questions as much as questions need answers.
The way I see it, when you are a person of faith and you question your faith, one of two things happens: either you lose faith—in which case it was probably not real or strong enough to begin with—or you find that despite the inner struggles, despite the sadness, despite the unexplainable or unanswerable, your faith remains. The latter is what happened to me when I let myself explore my doubts.
I often find myself frustrated at the need many of us often have to make things “either/or” and to put everything in a box. We feel the need for a conclusive answer. Right or wrong. Black or white. Faith or reason. Science or God. I think there are very few things in life that are so simple. I also think the whole point of faith is that it is something beyond our “boxes” and something we cannot be conclusive about.
In the end, what we are left with is a choice of faith. I choose to have faith, and that being connected to a Higher Power makes me a better human being. Wanting to be the best person I am capable of being is in itself enough reason for faith. My faith may not be “traditional,” and sometimes I miss that sense of simplistic confidence that I used to have. In its place, however, I have instead gained awareness, humility, and openness that I hope will never go away. I’m hungry to learn, because I know that there is so much I do not know.
I have found peace in knowing that I’ll never have all the answers, and that’s okay. That’s a part of faith. While I can’t say that my faith is stronger than before I started on my journey of doubt, I can say this: I have thrown every doubt at my faith, and my faith is still here. And that’s pure joy!
