Faith and Doubt
by Diane Linsley
In the book, A Sociable God, philosopher Ken Wilber identifies four
stages of spiritual development. These stages are belief, faith,
experience and adaptation.
Stage One: Belief
Each time you are introduced to a new concept, you choose whether or not to believe it. All learning begins with belief. But it shouldn't end there.
You can think of the stages of spiritual development as a pyramid with four levels. The largest number of people are at the bottom of the pyramid. These people have a set of beliefs, or a map of reality, that tells them how to interpret the world, and they are very attached to the map.
A person at this stage feels like his very existence is threatened if someone questions his beliefs. This is because he has confused the map with who he is. He has not yet experienced himself as the map maker - the one who chooses the beliefs that constitute his map of reality.
Our beliefs shape our lives. When we change our beliefs, our lives change. Can you think of a time when you decided to drop an old belief and pick up a new one? How did your life change?
Stage Two: Faith
What's the difference between belief and faith? Belief is conceptual. Faith is active. Faith is the willingness to experiment on a belief in order to prove whether or not it's true. Not all beliefs hold up under the bright light of experimentation.
The experimental stage of faith usually involves taking action in the physical world. Whenever you take action, you get some sort of result. This is the feedback that helps you to self-correct. I wrote about this in the article on success.
Here's an example of belief and faith: Maybe you believe that eating fresh fruits and vegetables will make you healthier. This belief doesn't help you unless you actually eat these foods, which is an act of faith in your belief.
Prayer and Bible study are the experiments for Christians. You may believe that the Bible is the word of God, but you actually have to read it if you want to have a personal experience.
Faith and Doubt
Faith and doubt are opposites, but opposites are actually two ends of the same stick. They come as a pair. Opposites go together and define each other. They are inseparable like the two poles of a magnet. You cannot have joy without pain, up without down, life without death. When you pick up one end of the stick, you also pick up the other end. You cannot have faith without doubt.
Doubt is what makes motivates you to seek for personal experience. How do you know the Bible is true until you actually read it? How do you know that prayer works until you actually try it?
Until people develop the ability to doubt and ask questions, they live in fear of their beliefs being attacked by others. Personal experience strengthens your faith. This is why it's important to not just believe, but to do the experiment of faith. The beliefs that survive the fiery furnace of faith, doubt and experimentation come out refined like pure gold.
In the process of doubting and seeking for answers, you develop the ability to see paradoxes and opposites. When you can't see the paradoxes, you are stuck in them. When you finally see them, you transcend them and discover a new perspective that integrates the opposites.
Some people suffer from the misconception that doubt means they don't have faith. This can cause unnecessary anxiety. If they understood that doubt is just part of the process of spiritual development, they might relax. People of faith are always questioning and learning.
One of my favorite books is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Because of her painful childhood, Jane begins to ask questions at a young age. She reads books and thinks deeply. Jane's aunt doesn't approve of questions, which she interprets as rebellion. So she sends Jane away to a boarding school where the pupils are abused by the authorities. Throughout her life, Jane learns to stand up to many people, including the man she loves. Jane lives by internalized principles, not by mindless obedience to those who want to control her. This is a story of faith and courage.
People who are stuck on the level of belief are afraid of doubt. They run away from it every time it arises, so they are unable to work through it and arrive at a higher level of understanding. They are stuck in pre-rational, magical thinking. This is dangerous because magical thinking can lead a person into New Age practices that are based in magical thinking and seeking for magical powers. This mindset leads people away from God into dark paths.
Fear may arise with doubt - the ego's fear of being wrong. This can happen when a person is taught that doubt is bad. What's so bad about doubt? Without doubt and experimentation, there would be no modern medicine or science. Doubt is a natural part of the learning process and the development of the rational mind. Doubt causes you to ask questions. When you ask questions, you find answers.
Humility is admitting you don't have all the answers. Then you become teachable. Take your doubts and fears to the Lord, and He will help you find the answers.
Freedom is an essential part of this process. People who have been traumatized by controlling authority figures have a much harder time moving through these stages.
Stage Three: Experience
Faith and doubt motivate a person to seek for experience. Experience alleviates the tension of the faith/doubt polarization. A direct experience is shocking because it's never what you expected. Personal experience alters your map of reality. Knowledge replaces faith. The ego's fear is replaced with a feeling of peace, a sense of wholeness, and an increased ability to love yourself and others.
Ken Wilber says, "Authentic transformation is not a matter of belief but of the death of the believer; not a matter of translating the world but of transforming the world; not a matter of finding solace but of finding infinity on the other side of death. The self is not made content; the self is made toast."
The person at this stage doesn't try to force his views on others or control others out of fear. He is able to listen respectfully to other people's perspectives and express his own views rationally and intelligently. He may also be motivated to share his personal experience with others.
Experience takes belief out of the realm of theory and into reality. You can now say, "I know this from my own experience," not just "I believe this because someone else said so."
Stage Four: Adaptation
After many experiences, a person eventually goes to the stage of adaptation. He now lives from the higher perspective that was previously only an idea.
At this stage, you cannot be intimidated, controlled or manipulated by others because you have your own integrated experiences. You have knowledge, not just belief. The Christian at this stage also has more confidence and trust in God than he had before.
Be well,
Diane Linsley
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