Doubt
44 conversations where the hosts get into doubt.
44 conversations
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Midlife-crisis faith questions: when suffering gets close to home
- Which of God's promises can I count on as mine when people are free to refuse them?
The hosts name the first cluster of midlife-crisis faith questions: when the broken world's weight lands close to home, believers ask whether God is really good even when they cannot see it.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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Why people ditch God
- Why do people ditch God?
Reading a Christian Post article by Robin P. Shoemaker, the hosts work through three reasons people leave faith: bad events that wreck a life, bad representatives of the faith, and bad morals that collide with sexual freedom.
From No. 505 · Because of Fussy and Fuzzy
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Don't take macro action based on micro analysis
- Am I taking macro action based on micro analysis?
A host introduces his principle — 'don't take macro action based upon micro analysis,' or 'don't take broad action based upon narrow analysis' — and the room tests it across examples.
From No. 450 · Good News of Narrow Focus
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What would it take for you to stop believing Christianity?
- What would it take for you to think that Christianity wasn't true?
A host poses the question directly: 'Dan, what would it take for you to think that Christianity wasn't true?'
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Pope-style advice: obedience before confirmation
- How do I know whether I've heard God correctly or just manufactured the prompting myself?
- Are Christians — or people generally — too risk-averse to take steps of obedience?
Dave Herrick — whom a crowd of followers has decided is the pope, and who was trapped by them in a cave over the weekend — delivers pope-style advice on the order of faith: we…
From No. 234 · The Messiah Complex
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Pastor Ryan Bell tries atheism for a year
- Can a pastor 'try out' atheism for a year?
The hosts read and react to a CNN story: pastor Ryan Bell of a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Hollywood resolved to live a year as an atheist - no prayer, church, or Bible…
From No. 174 · Trying Atheism for a Year
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Dear LFTP: the 16-year-old doubting her Catholic faith
- How can I convince my devout Catholic parents that my agnosticism is not just a phase?
- Which one went to heaven: the nice dad who skipped church or the devout church lady? (Both died at 40.)
A 16-year-old from a devout Roman Catholic family writes that she's never felt religious, now identifies as agnostic, and is crushed by having to lie to her parents.
From No. 170 · Can a Christian Be a Pessimist?
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Is it a sin to disagree with God? Election, Moses, relenting
- Is it a sin to disagree with God or not like a doctrine (e.g. election)?
A host raises a ChristianPost.com question: is it a sin to not like the doctrine of election — more broadly, to disagree with God's actions?
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Dan's own dips: 'what if we're not the only one?'
- What if another religion is right and we're not the only one?
Asked which crisis questions he has lived, Dan describes his generally strong faith as a pastor and then his periodic mini-crises: seeing other religions' zeal and wondering 'what if we're not the only one,' and fear after a cancer diagnosis.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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Wrestling with hard Scripture: Amalekites, Paul, and 'you know I can't leave, help my unbelief'
The second cluster of midlife-crisis questions comes from actually reading the Bible past the headlines: conquest passages like the Amalekites, slavery, divine judgment, and Paul's harder teachings.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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It's okay to feel it; it's not okay to leave it there
Mike: if your picture of God comes mostly from Jesus' stories, the Old Testament will feel off — that's okay, but don't leave it there; dig in and find people who know the scriptures.
From No. 540 · Justice is Mine
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The host's own faith becoming his in his late twenties
The host reflects that his own faith probably didn't become his until his late twenties. Growing up gives facts — fine for a season — but if faith never becomes experienced, deeper or alternative facts can shake it.
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Putting answers over questions
On 'putting answers over questions,' the hosts argue the fear behind the item is real: churches have clammed up when people ask hard questions, and that silence can feed deconstruction.
From No. 458 · 12 to 13 Mistakes From Wildin
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The Dave Gas thread: eighth-grade doubt and hyper-fundamentalist roots
A host reads the opening of Dave Gas's thread ('I am not a Christian anymore'), a former evangelical pastor of 20 years.
From No. 371 · 40 and Out
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The thread on scripture: apologetics, canon, and the presence of questions
Reacting to the thread's complaints about trite apologetics, canonization, and inerrancy, a host concedes some apologetic work is poorly done but argues the key line: 'the presence of questions do not indicate the presence of a problem.'
From No. 371 · 40 and Out
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Big questions: do I really believe? do I really love God?
- Do I really believe in God?
- Do I really love God?
Boova shares his two recurring big questions: 'do I really believe in God?' and 'do I really love God?' - admitting he has faked faith before and fears an elaborate self-deception.
From No. 199 · Big Faith Questions
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Boova's testimony: keeping faith after losing both parents
- How can you still have faith when God killed your parents?
John Boova tells how someone angrily asked him, 'How can you still have faith after God killed your parents?'
From No. 171 · The Phil Robertson Controversy
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Michael Gungor's year of atheism
- Is it a problem that Michael Gungor believes Noah was fictitious?
Ben (addressed by name) reads a long article about Christian-alternative-rock musician Michael Gungor of the musical collective Gungor: he fully embraced atheism in 2012 and no longer literally believes in creation, Adam and Eve, or the flood.
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Kristoff interviews Keller — the questions
- Am I a Christian — can someone be a Christian while doubting the virgin birth and resurrection?
A host reads through the Nicholas Kristoff interview of Tim Keller: whether the virgin birth is essential, whether the resurrection must be taken literally, and where that leaves a doubter — a Christian, a Jesus follower, or a secular Christian.
From No. 307 · Am I a Christian?
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Reading Peter Enns's rebuttal
- Is it okay to doubt? Can doubt coexist with genuine Christian faith?
A host reads the rebuttal by Peter Enns, who argues Keller's answers sounded dismissive rather than pastoral: the resurrection accounts genuinely differ, the virgin birth appears…
From No. 307 · Am I a Christian?
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The trouble with imperceptible miracles
- Are Christians underselling God by attributing minor, unverifiable improvements to him as miracles?
The hosts wrestle with a skeptic's claim that Christian miracle reports are always vague and unverifiable (nothing as clear as a regrown limb).
From No. 275 · Under-Asking God
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'What if we're wrong?' and whether doubting is a sin
- What if we're wrong about all of this - what are the stakes we're playing for?
- Is doubting a sin?
Guest Ben Michaels raises the stakes question - 'what if we're wrong?' - and retells C. S. Lewis's trilemma (liar, lunatic, or Lord) to argue that if Jesus' claims are true, nothing else matters.
From No. 199 · Big Faith Questions
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Luke 1: Zechariah, Gabriel, and why Mary wasn't silenced
- Why was Zechariah silenced for doubting when Mary asked basically the same question?
A host reads Luke 1:5-20 aloud — Zechariah chosen by lot to burn incense, Gabriel's announcement of John's birth, and Zechariah struck mute for doubting.
From No. 160 · The Pope Francis Interview
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Hosts respond: evidence, free will, and faith in the unseen
- Why doesn't God simply appear to everyone so that belief requires no faith?
The hosts push back: the site's author demands 'evidence without source' and makes himself the center of the universe — if Jesus did not appear to him personally, it could not…