Unless you doubt, your wisdom is in doubt

By Sumit Paul

“The worst speculative Sceptic ever I knew, was a much better Man than the best superstitious Devotee and Bigot.” This famous statement, which is now almost an aphorism, of the Scottish enlightenment philosopher David Hume, underlines the value of righteous doubt. Yes, doubt can also be righteous and is a way to enlightenment. Unless you doubt, your ‘wisdom’ itself is in doubt is a Greek adage that speaks volumes in praise of the role of doubts in an individual’s life.

Doubting is not a negative trait. Nor is it demeaning to one’s faith or beliefs. In his Masnavi-ye-Ma’navi, also called Mathnavi, No 3, Jalaluddin Rumi explains the importance of doubts through a parable.

Once a disciple told his master that a certain man in the village was full of doubts about everything. “He doubted Almighty, books and also doubted your teachings,” the disciple added. “He is the most honest seeker of wisdom because he never takes things at their face value. I would like to meet this man because of this very quality,” said the master, much to the astonishment of his complaining disciple.

Doubt is not outright denial. Doubting is a process before logical acceptance. We tend to believe in everything without questioning. This is not a desirable quality. Socrates said millennia ago, ‘an unexamined life is not worth living.’ We must question, doubt, and vivisect our own beliefs before accepting them as axioms.
To doubt is to be devout. Faith that answers to all your doubts is faith that stays forever. To be sceptical, is to be careful and circumspect. Only those who truly believe are often tormented by a barrage of doubts. Doubts act as catalysts in one’s journey to faith and enlightenment. Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr admitted to having been tortured by recurrent doubts about god’s universal love, called Agape in Christian Theology. But their doubts only strengthened their faith in god. At the same time, sincere doubts made many individuals realise that their hitherto beliefs and faith were flawed.

Somalia-born Ayan Hirsi Ali was a fanatic Muslim who later became an atheist just because her persistent doubts made her believe that she was wrong. Whether doubts destroy your faith or consolidate it, one thing is sure: They strengthen your self-belief.
Doubting is an internal rinsing. It is a procedure of self-purification because at the end of the day, you are answerable to yourself, not to an imaginary god or imposed and borrowed belief system. To be true to oneself, doubting is a sine qua non. So, paraphrasing Rene Descartes’ famous dictum, Cogito, Ergo, Sum – I think, therefore, I am, you doubt, therefore, you are. Doubting is the final statement in positive self-assertiveness.

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