While this post is about navigating doubts and the fallacy that CERTAINTY is necessary for developing belief and faith in God, be sure to watch, at the very bottom of the page, the two excellent, linked videos - one with famous apologist William Lane Craig and one with professor and apologist Sean McDowell (Josh's son!), as they explore the issues of whether CERTAINTY is required for faith, and whether DOUBTS can co-exist WITH it.
And see the last two paragraphs at the page bottom (just above the video links), to learn how even the most entrenched skeptic can find out the truth about God - and what He requires of US!
When it comes to ABSOLUTE certainty about ANYTHING, there NO human being is capable of having such complete knowledge. ONLY God can know ALL things - which is what COMPLETE certainty would require! This means that even what we can know about a thing will necessarily contain only partial knowledge and understandings about it. So, when a person asserts they would believe in God / Jesus IF they were provided PROOF and certainty of His existence - well, while God has given us massive evidences to know of His existence as a Creator (just look around, as it's found all over this website!), not only providing us strong reasons to know He exists, but to also motivate us to seek Him (pray, search the evidences, have an open mind and heart while doing so!). But what God doesn't provide us is PROOF! And yet, He does provide us with adequate, powerful, and ample evidences to believe in Him. He offers us copious, powerful truths and understandings more than sufficient to believe and have faith in Him (IF we desire to). But what He has NOT given us is what the great apologist Francis Schaeffer called, "EXHAUSTIVE truth." During our lives here on earth, He has kept some mysteries from us, for reasons only known to Himself, per His wisdom and timing. He has provided all of the understandings that He deems we NEED - But not all that we WANT! And once a person is saved, their understandings will grow and deep per God's Holy Spirit that teaches and guides every Christian.
In fact, when an agnostic or atheist claims to be absolutely certain that NO God exists - well, how could they ever be certain of such a statement? Were they around to see the Cause of the Big Bang, as God created the universe? Parted the Red Sea to save Israel? When Jesus walked out of that tomb? NO! Which means they can't be certain that He doesn't exist or that the key tenants of the Bible aren't true. AND thus, in their supposed "certainty," they have to completely ignore a ton of evidences - scientific, historic, and Scriptural, along with its many specific and HIGHLY unlikely, known and PROVEN fulfilled prophesies. At most, a skeptic can only credibly say that they are PERSONALLY persuaded of God's non-existence - yet, while denying mountains of evidence to the contrary, through which vast millions of people have instead been persuaded by (to say nothing of their having experienced His impact upon their lives).
It's clear that much unbelief is driven by personally held presuppositions that many stubbornly cling to - DESPITE strong, contradicting evidences to the contrary. So often, at the basis of unbelief is a person's motivation to hang onto their presuppositions at all costs - obviously meaning, people decide whatever it is that they want to believe - and often amidst powerful reasons that should motivate them to reconsider their position. And so we should use our rationality and God-given mind to search for God and the knowledge He has provided us. Surprisingly, I've come to see that many people lack faith, not for intellectual reasons or a lack of evidence showing it to be a sensible and logical thing to desire, but because of emotional ones!
Atheists / agnostics say they can't believe without certain proof - often meaning, they require some sort of scientific "proof" or obvious, personal experience that they THINK would prove it to them. And yet, as for SCIENTIFIC certainty, well, on various levels and as to various specifics and causes, this discipline continues to evolve to discover that many once-held "certainties," have subsequently been replaced by additional knowledge that appears to invalidate them, per the constant appearance of evermore, newer "certainties." Up until the 20th century, scientists almost universally had held to belief in a static, eternally existing universe, until cosmological evidences began to pile up to reveal the universe had a BEGINNING? And, even today, there remains substantial scientific disagreement, and yes, uncertainty, over HOW such a stunning event could have happened - a universe with its breath-taking, immensely complex and elegant building blocks, and stupendous precision immediately popping into existence at a point in which no time, space or even matter existed!
Biochemists tell us that a single cell is more complex than ANY machine man has ever built! And while an atheist or agnostic might well realize that scientific knowledge can slowly and sometimes radically change - as subsequent discoveries are made - they nonetheless must also ignore so many stunning and consistently validated discoveries that show that it is irrational to believe that it is possible for a sophisticated universe with building blocks of such incredibly intricate designs and functionalities could suddenly appear from some unseen dimension, and at a point in which NOTHING physical existed. Can blind, random things create THEMSELVES or such amazing designs and sophisticated functionalities and interactions? Such stunning, NON-existing things can pop instantly into existence - as they did at the Big Bang's beginning - without a designing mind behind them? Our best scientific minds from the 20th and 21st centuries have scarcely been able to understand these complexities - much less HOW they came into existence!
I won't get into here the irrationality of how believing that blind, random things could have been capable of producing hundreds staggering-detailed, fine-tunings that govern our world and universe - ALL of which had to first be in place before life could even exist, much less thrive, without a great intelligence and mind orchestrating and preparing it. Or how, from NON-life, living organisms could spring? There has NEVER been a "primordial soup" discovered! Nor has some mechanism been proven to have made any of it possible. All we have is wild and crazy theories that prove NOTHING, typically requiring ALREADY EXISTING things or processes! Even life itself is governed by instructions that can, in no way, evolve! Every cell, each massively complex, must have ALL of its parts in place, ALL AT ONE TIME, so as to function as a cell does. And every organism's DNA is encompasses the most massively complex and detailed coding language known to man - it is arranged in very specific sequences and order, determines whether a biological entity will become a man, elephant, mouse, or insect - as well as the unique characteristics of each.
Can blind things or processes account for existence and mysteries of our DNA - the basics of which took our best scientific minds over a century to understand its basics? DNA was first discovered by Friedrich Miescher, in 1869. Miescher first called it "nuclein," having isolated it from the nuclei of human white blood cells. But it wasn't until 1953 that James Watson and Francis Crick identified the double helix structure of DNA. And at the very end of the 20th century, in December 1999, and international team of researches shocked the world with the first uncovering the genetic code of an entire human chromosome. The team deciphered the 33.5 million letters making up the DNA OF Chromosome 22. The genome of each organism on earth includes a complete set of its genetic instructions - and in humans, almost every cell in the body contains a complete copy of it. The human genome contains about 3 billion bases and about 20,000 genes on 23 pairs of chromosomes, arranged in an extremely specific arrangement and sequence. And these sequences are converted into messages that produce protein that are complex molecules that do most of the work in our bodies. And the "grammar" of DNA is exceptionally sophisticated, as its instructions govern complex interactions between different parts of the genome, including regulatory regions and structural elements, and how and when genes are expressed. Does it make sense that so many such extraordinary things came into existence by pure time and chance? It takes tremendous, yes, FAITH, to believe such a thing!
With so many spectacular evidences that contradict people's belief - and "certainty" - that no God exists, it's pretty clear that many of them, no matter the power and number of evidences to the contrary, will stop to consider that they just "might" be wrong - and that they believe what they do about their insistence upon the non-existence of God, NOT based upon any supposed proof or claimed certainty, but merely because they are driven by inner motivations to believe what they do, as they so desire to - about things in which they not only have no proof to be possible UNCAUSED, and with tremendous and abundant evidences to doubt their unbelief in God. Yet, no matter one's insistence upon needing absolute PROOF for God's existence, even a personal experience or some direct, clear knowledge about God / Jesus is not enough to produce faith in the one determined to avoid it. (see immediately below)
What a direct and obvious experience about God cannot do for one who REFUSES to believe!
While such an amazing and obvious, supernatural experience of God might satisfy a person's curiosity as to whether He actually exists, it would in no way compel them to want to know, obey, or develop a relationship with and worship Him. In fact, even actually seeing Jesus do astonishing miracles, many STILL failed to believe: "Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him..." (John 12) Because they rationalized it away - either because they wanted to remain obedient to no one but themselves - or per peer pressure or whatever other, selfish motivations. John continues by noting that, "many, even of the authorities, believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." Never underestimate the powerful, inner motivations of the heart and mind that seek to prevent belief. NO one can know about God what they don't WANT to know, or what they refuse to at least SEEK!
Jesus confirmed that He can and will provide the knowledge and evidences of Himself people need to believe - IF they seek it - and Him! Matthew 7: 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." Note that Jesus Himself NEVER discounted the importance of evidences made obvious to the hardened skeptic, as He is the one who said that many people would not have believed if they had not first witnessed miracles He had done. The famous disciple, "Doubting Thomas," did not believe until Jesus miraculously appeared in the room, after His Resurrection from the dead, and invited him to inspect the crucifixion wounds upon his body. While many evidences God provides don't come in the form of physical miracles, He knows and provides what each person truly needs to know and understand for faith - which is often different, from person to person. And yet, a person can also - and often does - resist or ignore it. But whatever understandings a person truly needs to believe will often proves powerful in bringing an individual to faith - even those who have never seen Jesus or any of His miracles. Jesus shared that DIRECT evidences are not necessary for many - because He will show them in other ways that are also effective in reaching them! Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
I also thought I'd share some excellent observations I found online, by Neil Shenvi, a theoretical chemist:
. "Rigorous certainty is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for biblical faith."
. "Faith is a trust, a commitment, to Jesus Christ, regardless of my present feelings in the same way that marriage is a commitment to my wife regardless of my present emotions. Does that mean that faith is completely divorced from certainty or that marriage is completely divorced from feelings of love for my wife? Of course not. But it is vital to keep them in the right order."
. "Rather than torturing ourselves with an attempt to achieve some kind of perfect, rigorous certainty which I believe is philosophically impossible, we need to recall that faith is primarily a question of personal trust."
. "My certainty that a fireman is able to save me from my burning apartment might be extremely high, but it will never be perfect. Yet, in the end, I must make a decision either to trust him or to reject him."
. "It is not the strength of our CERTAINTY, but the OBJECT of our faith, that saves us."
For rigorous thinkers, finding and developing faith in God often requires several things: First, is an open mind to know the truth about things - and ESPECIALLY, having a desire to know the answers to the BIG questions about God, His existence, and answers to the things that perplex us about such mysteries that are common to all men. One needs to not intentionally filter out evidences or understandings that might challenge their previously held misconceptions when shown otherwise. Nor should they ignore or avoid evidences that don't fit with their present worldview - which is often the case. And NEVER discount that God WANTS us to know Him! PRAY about it - even if you think it to be an absurd and pointless suggestion. If you truly communicate to God that you desire to know the truth about His existence and about Jesus, He'll show you!
Drowning in a sea of uncertainties, about the universe, world, war and fears, life, death, and the future - we need to seek the Source of ALL things, as He is also certain about every one of them!
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)
And finally, know that mere BELIEF is NOT what God requires of us! The Bible tells us that, to enter eternity with Him, He requires receiving Jesus into one's heart and mind, in a committed desire to embrace Him as THEIR Lord. And so, God wants us, to the best of our ability, follow and obey Him (a struggle of intent that a Christian will desire and strive to do, but will never perfect while still mortal - and yet, He lovingly forgives us of our failures). Once we are saved, God will give us the ability help us - and want to - obey Him. We cannot do the things God desires in our own strength - we must rely upon Him to do so.
Philip
In THIS Video, Dr. William Lane Craig explores the question of uncertainty co-existing with faith.
And in THIS Video, apologist Sean McDowell talks about how doubt is not the opposite of faith, how faith does NOT require CERTAINTY. He also offers four tips from his own journey through a serious season of doubt.