Thanks for this great question. I think both of those responses seem like appropriate reasons for people losing their faith. However, the first response doesn’t consider the possibility of our doubts being cleared on the internet and the second response sees the point of faith as merely emotional comfort and unconcerned if the object of faith is true or false. Neither of those responses are comforting because deep down I think we all want to base our emotions on truth. Many of us believe things we were taught as a child but if that faith isn’t based on truth, it isn’t helpful. There may be a need for some deconstruction of false ideas in order to have a reconstruction of true faith.
The question was what steps we have taken when we question our faith. As I thought about it, I realized I first questioned my faith as a hindu. The rituals, the caste system, the practice of sati, the mythical nature of the stories, were not something that cohered with a God of love. Infact I feared more than I loved the gods as a hindu. I was afraid of doing the wrong thing and displeasing the gods and wondered if they ever listened to my prayer. In Christ was presented to me a God of love, One who told me I was fearfully and wonderfully made, One who was willing to answer my prayers, One who was all powerful but chose to be the One who suffered for me. It wasn’t hard for me to choose between Christ and the other gods I had known. However, its not these reasons alone that keep me in the faith but it is the blessings of receiving Him. There’s a song which says, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”. You can read all about how something tastes but until you have tasted it, you don’t really know the taste. In my case, God’s arrangement of certain circumstances of my life and the life changing power of God’s word were enough proof that providence had been at work. This kind of reasoning has not been satisfactory to others in my life as some have questioned if my experiences were truly from God or if these could be attributed to other spiritual beings or other natural explanations.
At such times, I have sought and relied on answers for the reliability of the gospels, the claims of Jesus and the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. While I may continue to have many doubts, I have also realized not all doubts are foundational to placing our faith in Jesus.
I have never really doubted the existence of spiritual dimension to life. The fact that spiritual hunger is a universal phenomenon and all cultures have forms of worship has been reason enough to not dismiss spirituality all together. The beauty in nature, universal morality and biological evidence for intelligent design, have also been helpful in staying confident in my belief about God’s existence.
There is another kind of doubt that has plagued me though. If Christ is true, why isn’t there more unity and love among Christians? This continues to interfere my prayer life as we may not always be purely rational in our behavior. There have been times when this question has tempted me to give up my faith. However, I choose to stay in faith because my problem seems to be the depravity of man rather than what Christ can or cannot do. No other religion explains this truth about the sinfulness of man and the need for help from a sinless God better than Christianity.
So unlike the response on quora, I choose to follow Christ even when going through emotionally discomforting times because I think Christ is true.
