Thursday, January 21, 2010

Belief and Doubt

To believe is to be happy; to doubt is to be wretched. To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power. Only so far as a man believe strongly, mightily, can he act cheerfully, or do anything that is worth the doing.

- Frederick William Robertson


Frederick William Robertson was an English Divine from the 1800’s and enthusiastically evangelical in his teachings. Clearly this quote was meant for Christian thinking - in other words he meant to believe in Jesus is to be happy. To doubt him as your saviour is to be altogether wretched. Yet when I first read this I had no background information and something completely different crystallized in my mind that I am certain would make Frederick rattle his tombstone.

Belief is what an individual holds to be true. I of course would add to this, what a person holds to be true ‘from a certain point of view’. So the question I pose is this: does belief in something, anything, make one happy?

Obviously belief is better than doubt. Consider the lottery. People hope to win the lottery, believing their life will be better. Does not this mere belief bring happiness to the individual, regardless of the reality of it? The thought of a better life, the dreams of what they would do with that money? Consider then, the harsh reality of the flip-side of this equation. How many people tell themselves “the odds of me winning the lottery are astronomical. I will never win.” This is the moment of doubt, which ‘cramps energy’. This doubt brings happiness to a grinding halt. Belief and doubt cannot exist in the same moment.


Little children believe in Santa Claus and each year presents magically appear beneath the Christmas tree. They live in awe and wonder at this marvellous idea. It is only after the dreadful reveal that Christmas loses some of its lustre. That is to say, when they stop believing.


Who is happier?
The child who wishes to fly?

Or the adult who knows they can’t?


Does this mean people should be delusional in their thinking? That believing in the Easter Bunny will bring happiness? Should people live in blissful ignorance? I think somewhere along the way we have mistaken maturation with pessimism. When we stop believing in things (and often not only is it inevitable but necessary), when we have no new beliefs or hopes to focus on, despair sets in, the way the cold seeps in and makes arthritic joints ache.


Does believing in God bring more happiness than not believing in God? Probably not. Suffering exists regardless of your beliefs. But either side of that debate brings its own hope for the future. If you are Religious, you cling to the hope of God taking away your pain. If you are not Religious, then medical Science becomes your saviour. And if you are Spiritual, you believe that there is something you can do to achieve a cure from within.

Is any one way better than the other? Certainly the Religious way takes a more passive role than say the Scientific or Spiritual way. But does taking a more pro-active role make it the better choice?

In recent experience I have noted that Christians are no different than Atheists. Although their belief systems appear to be diametrically opposed to one another, their convictions and attitudes are very similar. Both systems believe they are right and the other side are all fools. Both wish to prove that the other is wrong and will argue at great lengths over it. Atheists accuse Christians of causing the most bloodshed in the name of God. Christians accuse science for causing the most bloodshed in the name of progress.

Telling religious people, people who believe in a higher power that there is no God is just as bad as Christians condemning people to hell for not believing. And let’s face it, we only argue when we doubt our own beliefs. We argue that there is a God because we are not entirely sure. We argue that there isn’t for the very same reason. No one argues that the sun is hot.

Who is happier? The person who believes there is good in the world? Or that the world is full of evil?

A child creates simply for creation’s sake. Adults are the ones who worry about how good or bad something is. And even if it is good, or even great, their critical eye will still find fault, however small.


Children’s drawings are often nonsensical and it is difficult to immediately recognize what it is that they’re trying to communicate. I am not suggesting that the inexperience of childhood should be a model in which the world should live, what I am talking about is the sheer untainted, unencumbered joy of creating. The joy is in the act of creation. People’s perceptions (including our own judgements) on this creation are wholly separate and unattached to the act itself.


When we are young we are always asked the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And children love to imagine the future. They always have an immediate response - a vet, a teacher, even a rock star. And those answers will change monthly into something else, whenever a new idea is freshly introduced; something they were ignorant of beforehand. And the new possibility excites them. When asked this same question in High School, to prepare for College or University, how many of us answer with the same enthusiasm? Instead of honestly answering the question, we have mistaken what we want to be with what we should be. What is job is the most feasible? How much money will it provide? Is there room for growth? Are there going to be jobs available in this field? All very good questions, but none of it answers the original question. What do you want to be?

Who is happier?
The person who has hope for the future?

Or the person who believes we are in the end times?



Some could argue that it is foolishness to have false hope in the world, because of the endless disappointment they are setting themselves up with. Yet I would contend that the problem here isn’t having hope, the problem is allowing the world to make you doubt the possibilities. It is the doubt that brings down a person. When you are believing and hopeful, therein lies joy.

1 comment:

  1. You have published in a light and entertaining form the gist of a post I was planning to write, but fortunately sidetracked myself not to, in which I said that "of course God exists, but I don't believe in Him".

    Because of course God exists as the idea of millions; that is to say, the idea is certainly a fact; or more precisely, there are millions of different ideas of God.

    As to whether there is a real God, we do not know because God is unknowable.

    So it comes down to whether there is in some way advantage in belief; otherwise who would pay the undoubted entry fee to religious membership--the sacrifices, the hours of prayer and so on?

    You have answered very well that question: not definitively, of course, for there could be a million answers. But most adequately, and I thank you for it, and hope you will publish more.

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