In dealing with doubts

[Anastasia13]

As a Christian, is it ok to rather than simply looking to support one's faith already, just consider the evidence that one might come across and whether it supports one's faith or not? When one has doubts, how does one really work through them (besides prayer)?

Edited October 15, 2005 by Light and Truth

[phatcatholic]

i know this is a simple answer but its true:

prayer and study

those are the two best ways, in my opinion.

[Laudate_Dominum]

If a Christian believes they are called to intellectual pursuits, it is important that the person’s spiritual life, principally the life of prayer, grow along side the intellectual life. If one develops substantially in the intellectual life, but their spiritual life is stunted and compartmentalized, there will likely be defects and conflicts.
As a person who has encountered Christ and has a relationship with God, I do not see any other approach to the question apart from prayer. I can remember a time in which I would frequently read vile books of atheistic and often explicitly anti-Christian philosophy and things. I can recall reading these things in the chapel and sometimes after reading a seductive argument I would turn to Christ and ask Him what He thinks of this carp. It is important to value your love-relationship with God in all things. As soon as you introduce a divide you are asking for problems. It is like a human love-relationship. If you start living a double life, one which includes your spouse, and one which excludes them, you may be asking for relationship difficulties, especially if that second clandestine life is in fact hostile to the relationship in itself.

There is nothing that says that one must only read things that support their faith, but I would wonder why a person would intentionally attack their faith and their relationship with God. I've seen, out of a quite stupid "anger" toward God, or blaming of God, or often even simply having been seduced by sin, people who decide to attack their own faith and relationship with God. It might later be expressed as a "freeing oneself from the shackles of religion", or something of that sort. To a person who may be suffering a tendency of this sort, or perhaps just a self-destructive curiosity, I might say it is time to seriously evaluate their state of soul and priorities.

One can discern the path of God in their life and this can include exploration of all sorts of ideas, some of which may be hostile to Christianity or simply aspects of one's own world-view. This can certainly be of God, for our own notions of things are rarely "right on", and God can lead us down paths that we did not expect. I would say the guiding principle of discernment must be the fruits in one's life. Christ left us this wisdom after all. Believe it or not, my own study of anti-Christian and atheistic thought actually led me closer to God and strengthened my relationship with Him in many ways. This is not always the case. And I can't assume this would be the case if I just decided to immerse myself in it at this moment. God may ask us to grow and this might be uncomfortable so these fruits may not be instantly evident. God calls us to faith which may mean walking through darkness and peril for a time.

Another thing I might mention that can be helpful is finding wise people that you look up to. They need not even be living. For me, there were times where I would say, do I want to be a person of the kind and quality of Nietzsche, or St. Therese? Mother Teresa or Schopenhauer? Would I prefer on my death bed to have lived the life of Sartre or St. Francis? Julian the Apostate or St Maximos? The Marquis de Sade or Louis de Montfort? Machiavelli or Francis De Sales? Herod or St. Paul? Stalin or Kolbe? Marx or Faustina? The correct path is quite clearly marked I must say.

I hope this helps my friend.