Healthy Doubt and Unhealthy Doubt

Like tolerance, doubt is not in itself automatically a good or bad thing.  It is neither a virtue to doubt nor a virtue never to doubt.  As usual, context is crucial.  One must ask what is being doubted and in what spirit and with what result.  There is healthy doubt and less healthy doubt.  One feature of healthy doubt is a refusal to settle for lousy answers to good questions.  One symptom of unhealthy doubt is paralysis.  When doubt leaves you unable to commit or act in life, then you have a diseased, disabling form of doubt, not a healthy questioning.

-Daniel Taylor, The Skeptical Believer

When Jude writes “Be merciful to those who doubt” (Jude 1:22), there’s probably space for mercy on both kinds of doubters. For those who refuse bad answers to good questions, mercy looks like honoring their curiosity instead of condemning it, regardless of how much it might destabilize our belief system. For those who are paralyzed in their doubt, mercy looks like patience and encouragement and being willing to put up with cynicism graciously while still naming it as unhealthy.

Where in your life do you experience healthy doubt? How about unhealthy doubt? And are there people around you in those different camps? If so, what might it look like to love them well and extend them mercy today?