First of all, I too, would like to say, I have missed these blogs! I love getting to write down the thoughts I have after reading through the pages of our honors experience and I love getting to interact and see the thoughts of my fellow honorees ( haha yes I know, honorees is not a word… or is it? ;p) but anyways, reading the first paragraph of Decartes got me excited! I liked the following phrase I ran across when reading this: “For since faith is a Gift of God, the same being who bestows grace to enable us to believe other things, can likewise impart of it to enable us to believe his own existence.” I have actually been thinking a lot about faith and have recently learned what and where faith comes from. So, according to Decartes, faith is a gift from God and therefore by faith, we can believe in God’s existence. Decarte, however, I find very interesting because of his system of thought process, his thinking, his doubt all to find truth. I find it very comforting to know that Decarte went through a process of doubt about everything he knew or thought he knew about Christ and the soul and body. I used to think doubt was a bad thing. Is it? I feel like being able to stop and rethink the things we already know is good for helping the individual grow in their beliefs or what they used to believe in.
It makes me feel better that Decarte doubted things but went through a process like systematic doubting. From experience, I have sat and wondered whether certain things were truly real or is it just us being used to thinking they were or do we really even exit? Of course we do have this sense of a higher power, we believe we do exist obviously, and therefore through our faith believe God does exist. I have had doubts about God but I have always reached the conclusion that He does, how else could we explain everything?
~Amy Smith~ (My name on here says “His Beloved” im sorry!)
P.s I commented on Amanda’s post!
I completely agree with you! I used to have so many doubts and I used to question if God was really true or not. But I always found a way to come back to God. I like how you brought up how you used to think that doubt was a bad thing. I think that after we have our little moments of doubt, we still go back to God and it's usually an even stronger bond then before. So I guess a little doubt never hurt anybody.
ReplyDeleteI feel like you and I have the same post in different words. It seems to me that our doubts make us stronger. When you are able to doubt something first, and it is proven true, than it is a stronger concept. I also really like the quote about faith. How did I miss that? I love how it say, "..the same being who bestows us grace to believe other things," I know that's just a part of it, but I never thought of belief that way. God makes us able to both believe in Him and in other things. Hmmmm. I hope I'm making sense. Another thing to notice about this quote is that it suggests that descartes did believe in believing, and not just doubting. I wonder what he believed (ha) about faith (which in a sense, is belief) as opposed to pure logic and science. Food for thought. Once again, I hope my rambling makes sense!
ReplyDeleteFor a long time after I came to faith in Christ, I doubted many things about God and I was told then that no one should doubt or even question God or anything about Him. I love that Descartes showed that a questioning, even of our faiths can strengthen that faith and help us better understand God.
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree with what all of you have said. When we consciously doubt something we believe in, it forces us to ask ourselves why we believe what we believe. However, this may prove too much of a strain some of the time. I've seen all too many times people begin to doubt who God is and if He really is all He's talked up to be and because of that doubt lose their faith because they could not come up with a reason for what they believe. Now, I wish that wasn't true, but it is, and thus brings me to the other side of the spectrum; the very positive result of that same doubt. If one is able to come through the doubt having successfully realized why they believe what they do, then their belief becomes much stronger as a result of that self examination. Systematic doubt can serve as a very challenging and effective way to reexamine one's personal beliefs not neccesarily prove them wrong, but more importantly prove to oneself why they believe.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what was said in so many ways. Doubting is indeed necessary. I feel that God wants us to question Him, that way He can grow us in our relationship with Him and make us more mature in it. But, at the same time we need to be able to relinquish that desire for an answer because sometimes God doesn't have an answer for us... yet. Or, sometimes there are things that are better left unanswered. So, I'm not quite sure what I'm trrying to say here besides be careful. Question, but be content if no answer is given. Don't just throw it out the window, kind of like Descartes did, when he found no proof for it to necesssarily be true.
ReplyDelete