” ‘I try not to doubt,’ the Mayor said. ” ‘Oh, so do I. So do I. In that we are certainly alike.’ ”The Mayor put his hand for the moment on Father Quixote’s shoulder, and Father Quixote could feel the electricity of affection in the touch. It’s odd, he thought, as he steered [his car] with undue caution round a curve, how sharing a sense of doubt can bring men together perhaps even more than sharing a faith. The believer will fight another believer over a shade of difference; the doubter fights only with himself.”

Graham Greene, Monsignor Quixote

Ayala, a former monk, believes there is no contradiction between science and religion. He says, “…I hope the recognition [the prize] bestows will help propagate the notion that science and religion are not in opposition and that, in fact, they may often be complementary. …I have been arguing for years, and I continue to argue in all possible ways that are accessible to me, that there need not be contradiction between science and religion. Properly they cannot be in contradiction because they deal in different subjects. They are like two windows through which we look at the world; the world is one and the same, but what we see is different.”

Ayala was born in Madrid in 1934, and in 1960 was ordained as a Dominican priest but left the order the same year and moved to the US. His discoveries have led to research into various diseases including Chagas disease and malaria. He has publicly criticised US restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He is also critical of creationism and intelligent design theories, and argues that belief in evolution does not rule out belief in God.

John 20 relates the story of the disciple who was not there when Jesus’ made a resurrection appearace to the gathered disciples. Later he couldn’t take in the information – couldn’t believe unless he saw for himself.

Thomas has often been called "doubting Thomas" – a title that is hardly a compliment. But there are lots of reasons, I think, for applauding Thomas – he was honest, he didn’t pretend to have faith he didn’t have, he didn’t just go along with the crowd. He did that very hard thing, which is to own up to being the odd one out among a group of friends. And, bravely, even when he was the odd one out, he didn’t go away and isolate himself, he jsut carried on meeting with the other disciples until, a week later, he saw Jesus for himself and found a faith that he COULD own.

Doubt is not the same as unbelief. Unbelief is a determined refusal to believe, whereas doubt is an honest owning up to not being convinced. In Judaism, according to Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth, "To be without questions is not a sign of faith, but of lack of depth." And he encourages people not only to ask questions about the meaning of the faith, but to question God. We ask questions, says Sacks, "not because we doubt, but because we believe."

Some years ago I went through a period of profound doubt in the existence of God. I suppose most people do at some point, but it was a particular crisis for me as I had just begun training for ordination at the time. (If only I could have lost my faith six months earlier when I still had a career going elsewhere!) After a while I decided to own up and tell one of my Tutors what was going on. I fully expected to be told to get my act together, or catch the next train out of Cambridge. But no. this older, wise person said, "You’ve been a Christian for nearly three decades already: your faith is in your bones and your marrow. If you’re really losing your faith, it’s going to take time. So you can afford to relax. Don’t feel obliged to believe anything you don’t believe. Keep on studying, keep on hanging around the community, and just see what happens. If God is there he will show up again sooner or later…   Oh, and by the way, if you find that God actually DOESN’T exist, you’d better come back and tell me as I shall want to leave the Church too."
This proved eminently sensible advice. Without the pressure to produce the elusive faith I relaxed in my doubts for a few months. And somewhere – I can’t quite think when or how – suddenly there it was again. There HE was again.

Thomas obviously didn’t go ON being troubled with doubt. Christian tradition has it that Thomas was the disciple who took the gospel to India, where later he was martyred. And people don’t get martyred for something they aren’t too convinced about.

Coleridge wrote some good stuff about doubt. Here’s a thought for the day:
"Dubious questioning is a much better evidence than that senseless deadness which most take for believing. People that know nothing…have no doubts. Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have the disposition to believe, and doubt in order that you may end in believing the truth."

Paula Gooder

from a great post on faith and atheism by ClayBoy

As always, there are various possible interpretations of such data? Is it because the smarter you are the more likely you are to find God? (the gospel would suggest otherwise). Mouse proposes that the Church aims its mission in a style that appeals to people who like reading, studying, analysing. Much more likely to be the right answer.

I started out in ministry on street corners among the homeless, many of whom couldn't read at all. I now work in one of the best universities in the land. I've read lots of those books like Mission Shaped Church, and Blue Like Jazz, and Velvet Elvis, and A New Kind Of Conversation – they all talk about the need for the gospel to cross cultures. I would say crossing the wide range of educational experience is a far bigger cultural gap than anything suggested in those books.