James Pereira's Reviews > Faith and Doubt

This was an interesting book. What I liked about it was its honestly. It's honest about the fact that people have doubts and that you can be a very intelligent person, a good Christian, and still have doubts. And how faith and doubt go together.

And that if certainly existed, which would remove all doubts, faith would be made obsolete. And so it raises the question, why do we need faith? Why not just remove all doubts? That should help solve the problem right? Right?........

And so it's an interesting read, both as a former Atheist and now as a current Christan. This book doesn't "Solve" any of the multitude of philosophical problem surrounding God, like the problem of evil.
And the book doesn't attack straw man arguments which atheist put up. But rather, it's honest in it's treatment of them, laying down the arguments for why the author believes and at the same time the reason why he doubts. (The one's why he doubts are pretty convincing, and the Atheist in me felt nostalgic looking at the names of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchen and Dawkins).

What I liked about the book

The second last chapter, on Why I believe. Wherein he talks about the different reasons he believes in God. And not all of them are convincing. But what I liked was that Christianity is different from other worldviews and religions. And how religion provides Hope.
At the end of the day, we all need something to live for, we need some purpose in life, we need some reassurance that our lives aren't meaningless, that we weren't an accident, and we matter, and that we are loved.
And for all the good postmodernism has got us, it has taken this one thing, and that is meaning.
(Now I agree that just because something makes us feel good doesn't mean we should long for it, I'm not saying turn to religion as a panacea of sorts, no)
But that, Christians has the power to change people's lives, to turn deathrow inmates into productive beings, to help people live life meaningfully and provide them with purpose. And Christianity has a pretty decent track record of turning lives around for the better.

And so, while not everyone will not buy this reason, it's one of the reasons why I believe.

We may cry out with longing and despair to the cold uncaring universe . . .
but we will only hear silence in return. The universe is mute, devoid
of all power to either affirm or deny the worth we place on either ourselves or on others. So be it. We do not matter to the universe.

Nihilism is nice, nice is fun, but nihilism is also depressing and not really the best kind of worldview for humans. Feeling a sense of purpose, a sense of agency and free will, all go a long way to living a healthy life. And Christianity has an answer to that.
So yea, thanks for the read, and I hope you stumble onto the answers you're looking for.
Cheers