In the Midst of Confusion and Doubt… Faith!

One day, a teacher was explaining evolution to her students. The teacher asked a little boy, Tommy: “Do you see the tree outside?” Tommy replied, “Yes.” The teacher asked, “Tommy, do you see the grass outside?” Again, Tommy replied, “Yes.” The teacher then said, “Tommy, go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky.” The boy did as he was told, returned a few minutes later and told the teacher, “Yes, I saw the sky.” Then the teacher asked, “Tommy, did you see God up there?” “No,” Tommy replied. The teacher then explained, “That’s my point, class. We can’t see God because he isn’t there. He possibly doesn’t exist.”

A 6-year-old girl was sitting in the classroom, listening to all this. She asked the teacher for permission to ask Tommy some questions, and the teacher said OK. She asked the boy, “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?” Tommy replied, “Yes.” The girl asked, “Tommy, do you see the grass outside?” Again, Tommy replied, “Yes.” The little girl asked, “Tommy, do you see the sky?” The boy replied, “Yes!” The little girl asked, “Tommy, do you see the teacher?” Tommy answered, “Yes.” The girl asked, “Do you see her brain?” Tommy replied, “No.” The girl concluded, “According to what we learned in school today, she possibly may not even have one!”

How many would agree with the statement: “Our Faith is often under attack today”? Now, maybe, this is nothing really new. Especially in spring time, especially just before Easter, it seems like some new attack is launched every year at this time against Christianity. This year, it was the sensationalistic show on the Discovery Channel about how archeologists supposedly had discovered to burial tomb of Jesus and his family. Thus, they said, the resurrection is a lie. Jesus’ bones have been found. Right? Wrong! All the real experts, including Jewish experts, discounted the supposed discovery as a giant hoax.

There are a couple of books out now, on the New York Times bestseller list, that attack religion. One is entitled “The God Delusion,” by a renowned scientist, Richard Dawkins. For him, all religion and all faith is just a myth, a big lie. The other book is by an atheist named Sam Harris, entitled “The End of Faith.” He argues that religion is at the root of all the world’s problems – war, violence, torture, poverty, injustice – and needs to be destroyed for the sake of humankind’s future. Dawkins argues that 90 percent of Americans believe in God, but only 40 percent of scientists believe in God. More astonishingly, he notes that only 7 percent of the nation’s top scientists believe in God! If that is true – and it probably is! – then no wonder our kids leave for college and come back, rejecting God and faith!

So how do we respond? Today’s gospel, the story of good ‘ol doubting Thomas, is for us! In fact, I want to argue that this story was purposely placed in the Bible to help those of us who live after Jesus; those of us who cannot see the risen Jesus in person, physically; so that we might have faith and believe. You see, we are Thomas! Read with me what Jesus says to Thomas – and to us: "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (John 20:29)

Today, let’s look at this phenomenon called doubt.

First, repeat after me: It is not a sin to doubt. We are created to be curious and to ask questions. It’s part of our human nature. If you have kids, you know this! “Mommy, why is the sky blue?” “Daddy, how do airplanes fly?” My favorite – “Mommy, daddy, where did I come from?” I remember a story about some parents who really wrestled with how to answer that question. They started to explain the birds and the bees as best they could to their little boy, but after a while, he got bored and said to them, “I don’t need that big, long, complicated explanation – my friend Johnny told me he was from Mexico, and I just wanted to know where I came from!”

When I was a little boy, I wanted to know how many legs were on a caterpillar. One day, my mom got tired of me asking, so she said, “Bruce, just go count them!” I caught me this caterpillar, turned it on its back, and spent the good part of an entire afternoon trying to count the legs of the caterpillar. Did you know that it is very hard to count the legs of a caterpillar! They are so tiny, and they are always moving. This caterpillar didn’t want to sit still! But my parents still laugh at the result – I want around door to door, telling all the neighbors my discovery, that caterpillars have … you guessed it! – I came up with an odd number, 29 legs!

Thomas had questions. He told the other disciples, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." (John 20:25) Can anyone here relate to Thomas? I can! I’m the kind of person who needs to see to believe. I’m a born skeptic. People talk to me about UFOs, or the Loch Ness Monster, or Mary appearing on a tortilla, or strange noises at night because their house is haunted by ghosts – and I roll my eyes and say, “I’ll believe it when I see it, and not one second before!”

There is an anonymous saying: “The dangerous person is not the one who doubts, but the one who does not care.” I’ve always loved that saying. In our gospel today, Jesus didn’t criticize Thomas for his doubting and questioning. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus went out of his way to make a second appearance, just for Thomas’ benefit – and for ours! God is not afraid of our questions or of our doubts.

How do we respond to doubts? First, we need to understand where our doubts come from. On your handouts, I’ve listed six sources of doubt:

1. From our upbringing and our society. Many folks grow up in homes where God is simply not a part of the equation. Their parents never practiced any religion, so they grow up without any experience or knowledge of God. And, as we noted earlier, our society is becoming more and more antagonistic toward God and religion and faith. Atheism is in the air we breathe today – maybe not explicitly, but subtly and just hidden under the surface, on TV and in music and in the media.

2. Our age in life. Many of us go through a rebellious stage in life. This often happens in the teen years, but not always. Parents who are active in church start to pull their hair out when their kids become teens and say they don’t want to go to church, because they don’t believe in God. Parents, a word of advice: Calm down! It’s usually just a stage – our teens are trying to assert their independence and individuality. They reject what mom and dad say and believe – it’s a normal part of growing up. So if mom and dad say the sky is blue, the teenager says that it is red. If mom and dad say jump, the teenager will sit.

3. Laziness. Some people just are born lazy and don’t want to put the work into finding out if life has a meaning or a purpose, and if there is a God or not. They just don’t care.

4. Insecurity. Sometimes we doubt because we are insecure and unsure about our beliefs and convictions.

5. Our hurts and sufferings. Sometimes, we are just mad at God because of the pain we are in. We shake our fist at God and say, “God, you don’t exist, or this would not be happening to me!” But I want to add here that, sometimes, our pain and suffering actually drives us toward God, rather than away from God, for it is our faith that can give us strength and comfort when we are hurting.

6. Finally, we sometimes doubt and have questions simply because we are curious, and we genuinely are searching for answers to life’s deepest questions. That’s how God made us. Searching and questioning are good things.

So… there are some good ways and some bad ways to respond to doubt. First, the bad ways. Number One – and parents are often guilty of this, when their kids ask questions and the parents don’t know the answer – is to say, “Don’t ask questions! Just accept what I tell you and what the Bible says, end of discussion!” Parents: Never say this to your kids! It’s a good thing that they are questioning! Encourage them to search and find answers.

The second bad way to deal with doubt is what I call “stupid Christianity.” Christian fundamentalists are often guilty of this. They don’t use their brains. They try to create this irrational way of looking at the world that makes no sense to any thinking, educated person. They treat the Bible literally, as a science book -- so God created the world in a literal six days, and there were no dinosaurs because they aren’t mentioned in the Bible, and all the laws of physics and chemistry and biology and the theory of evolution are just a bunch of lies foisted on us by atheists, if they disagree with what the Bible says. Hogwash! Science and religion are not enemies. But the Bible was never meant to be a science book! Some of our kids hear only this brand of “stupid Christianity,” and when they go off to college and learn about history and science, they see that this type of anti-intellectual Christianity makes no logical sense. But instead of learning about God in a more enlightened and informed way, they reject God altogether. Really, they are just rejected this brand of stupid Christianity – but they don’t know it, because they think all Christians are unsophisticated, uneducated country bumpkins.

The right way to deal with doubts is to read and study and ask questions. And to pray – honestly, sincerely, openly, letting the Lord lead you to answers. Our parish web page is great for this – it’s listed on your handout. Under a section on the web page entitled “Help Articles” are several interesting articles to help those with questions and doubts about God – “Finding God in the Questions,” “God: The Evidence,” and “The Pain of Death.” Also, for those who are interested in knowing about evolution and faith, I recommend a wonderful book by a renown biology professor at Brown University who also is an active, practicing Catholic, entitled “Finding Darwin’s God,” by Kenneth R. Miller.

Let me share of few of my thoughts on how I answer questions about God’s existence. I’ve written these on your handout, in the form of a short outline. These are a few things I might say to an atheist:

1. First: Nobody can prove – or disprove -- God’s existence, scientifically. We can only weigh evidence, some pro, some con. For me, the evidence for God outweighs the evidence against, but there are still, for me and for all of us, mysteries and unanswered questions.
2. Second: Atheism is just as much a religion as Christianity – it is based on unprovable presuppositions and assumptions and has its own “dogmas.” Nonbelievers often try to make atheism seem logical, scientific, irrefutable because it is “objective” – but that is simply not true. All belief systems rest on certain assumptions and require faith, including both Christianity and atheism.
3. Third: The atheists are not all wrong. I presume that most of them are sincere in their beliefs. And they make some good points. Sam Harris, for example, argues that religion is responsible for many bad things in society – fanaticism, intolerance, suicide bombings, the inquisition, the crusades, holy wars. I don’t disagree. But religion also is responsible for many good things – hospitals, orphanages, universities, outreach to the poor, the civil rights movement and the abolition of slavery, just to name a few.
4. Fourth: Theologian Hans Kung once asked, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” In other words, how do we explain the very existence of ourselves, capable of reflecting on our self existence, without believing in God? It is a very good question. It seems to me that without God, all of life would be a giant farce, a cosmic joke. There is no meaning or purpose to life if we are just accidental blobs of protoplasm, destined for extinction.
5. Fifth: Without God, there is no basis for morality – it’s just “survival of the fittest, baby!” Without God, there is no reason not to kill you, if you are in my way and if I can get by with it.
6. Finally: Last week, Newsweek magazine carried an interview about God between Rick Warren, a famous Protestant pastor, and Sam Harris, the atheist. I loved the last line in the article by Rick Warren: “I believe in both faith and reason. The more we learn about God, the more we understand how magnificent this universe is. There is no contradiction to it. When I look at history, Christianity has done far more good than bad. Altruism comes out of knowing there is more than this life, that there is a sovereign God, that I am not God. We’re both betting. He’s betting his life that he’s right. I’m betting my life that Jesus was not a liar. When we die, if he’s right, I’ve lost nothing. If I’m right, he’s lost everything. I’m not willing to make that gamble.” Way to go, Rick! Christians, 1, atheists, 0. It reminds me of graffiti on a bathroom wall. Someone had written, “God is dead – Nietzshe.” But later, someone else wrote, “Nietzhe is dead. – God.”

I want to conclude by looking at a few final verses. First, from Acts of the Apostles, which is our first reading today. Let’s read it together, out loud: “Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's portico. None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.” (Acts 5:12-13, NAB) That last line really struck me – where it says that, despite the many signs and wonders, most people just sat and watched. They admired the disciples from a distance, but they didn’t dare to join them.

There are three kinds of Christians: Casual Christians, Convenience Christians, and Committed Christians. The first two aren’t really Christians at all. Casual Christians are those who say they believe in God, but God is really just an afterthought in their lives. They were raised to believe in God. They go to church at Christmas and Easter. But God isn’t at the center of their lives. They’re just spectators, sitting on the sidelines. Their faith is really shallow, superficial. Convenience Christians are those who come running to church and to God when they need something – a crisis in their life, or they want to baptize a baby or to get married or for their child to make first communion. Real Christians are the committed, on fire Christians. They’re not perfect, by any means – none of us are! But they care! They’re like Thomas, maybe full of questions and doubts, but at least they are passionate about learning the truth.

Today, we’ve been talking about doubt, confusion. The antidote is faith – but not a shallow, superficial, casual faith; and not a faith of convenience. The only real faith that counts, and that will help us through our doubts and confusion, is the passionate faith of conviction and commitment. Which kind of faith do you have?

Let’s look at three final passages, and then we’ll end. First, a passage from the Gospel of John, where doubting Thomas makes another appearance. Jesus is talking with his disciples. The conversation occurs before Jesus’ death and resurrection, before Doubting Thomas’ encounter with the risen Lord that we heard in our gospel today. Here, Jesus tells them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? … Where (I) am going you know the way." Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:1-2, 4-6 (NAB)

Did you catch it? Jesus tells us that he is the doorway – the path to truth and the life, the path to faith overcoming doubt and confusion. He does not want us to live lives of trouble and anxiety.

Next passage: from the end of our gospel today. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may (come to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31, NAB) Again, did you catch the same theme repeated? God wants us to experience abundance, fullness of life, in his name.

Finally, the wonderful, life-giving words of Jesus to his disciples -- and to Thomas, and to us -- in our gospel today: "Peace be with you…. Receive the holy Spirit.” (John 20:19, 22, NAB)

Do you want peace? Do you want abundant life? Then shuck the superficial fake Christianity of casual faith or convenience. Embrace the radical Christianity of commitment and conviction. The road away from doubt and confusion and toward faith is not so much up here, in our heads – though God wants us to use our brains and our intellects. It is down here, in the heart – not through scientific proofs or philosophical reasoning, but through a lived experience of Jesus, risen and alive in us and in our neighbors.

Where will you find answers to your doubts? Not just by sitting on your duff, reading a book. Better to roll up your sleeves, get involved, stop being a spectator. Then, through action, when we become DOERS of God’s Word, not just HEARERS – then the Risen Lord will reveal himself to us.

Let’s end with a video that speaks to us about being doers – a music video by a group called Nickelback, entitled “If Everyone Cared.” We used this video last week at the teen Mass. Watch it. Listen. Let it move you to become a person of action, a person who cares, a doer, a participant and not just a spectator – in this way, reaching out to the poor and to our neighbor, we experience the living Lord, and our God wipes away all tears… dispels and soothes our doubts and confusions… and gives our lives meaning and, best of all, peace.

[Show video]