Navigating Doubt: Strengthening Your Faith in Times of Uncertainty

By William Vincent

In "Navigating Doubt," William Vincent delves into the profound and often perplexing nature of faith, guiding readers through the labyrinth of uncertainty that can accompany a wavering belief. Drawing parallels between the logical precision of science and the enigmatic power of faith, Vincent explores how faith can both illuminate our path and l

• Language: English
• Publisher: ArcanaVerse Books
• Release date: May 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9798330201860

Book preview

Introduction

Faith can be the most powerful means for staying on a difficult path or for steering towards inalienable aspirations. The science and mathematics we have learned from childhood guide our reason and induce us to reconcile our experiences with those theories. However, it is our faith that drives us to go through a seemingly logical but very arduous solution to 3x2 = 6, although a straightforward alternative is in plain view at the very beginning of the problem. Similarly, faith can help you to persist in difficult chosen paths (3a2 + 2ab + 3b2 = (a + b)2 + ab). On the other hand, faith could also lull us into complacency, faith in erroneous beliefs or bitter delusions, propelling us into a life with no designs, into a life without journeys. Therein lies the mystery of faith — its sumptuous might and magical abilities envoys both tangible and esoteric.

Are you feeling that your sense of faith is weakening or under threat? Are you sometimes haunted by the feeling of being alone and the fear that your doubts are eroding your very capacity to make rational choices? Into the darkest hours of an experience, it's quite common that we get fearful. While we are stuck, waiting for some external hand to come to our rescue, anxiety crescendos. It isn't unusual, at those times, to doubt not just our own choices but the entire system behind those choices. Often, as we realize that our faith in our spiritual path is dwindling, a script runs in our minds: Can we trust our intuition? Can we trust our mentors? Or, more hauntingly, will it be worth surrendering to trust?

Understanding Doubt

Various religious thinkers associated with LDS groups are quick to note that both faith and doubt are inextricably woven into lives of worship and individual testimony. They stress that these two types of concepts cannot exist one without the other. Keith Erekson explicitly notes the rigorous doubting of witnesses to both the Book of Mormon plates and the angel Moroni guarding these precious artifacts. More commonplace encounters with doubt are found among scores of disciples, individuals who loved the presence of Christ as well as His teachings, had to adjust to repeated social and moral challenges presented by their association with Jesus. Their mental missions graphically described in the New Testament reflected profound transformations, often accompanied by a healthy measure of skepticism not long after witnessing Christ walking upon the waters of an ancient sea and rendering numerous other validated paranormal events. Doubt is an appropriate response to a world full of endless mysteries we've yet to solve. As many people of faith will argue, we cannot equate doubt with a major catastrophe, or malignant force working to poison our entire value system. We are not extremists, fundamentalists to be swayed by one end of the spectrum or the other. We are spiritual thinkers. We must be willing to step forward from our place of tranquility, which offers us a sense of deep reflection, and immerse ourselves in a sense of wonder and thrill as we wander