Positive Doubts

Stone Three encourages us to question every experience. Another way of looking at this is to say that we have doubts. One of Jesus’ apostles was nicknamed Doubting Thomas, and in the past I’ve considered his title to have a negative connotation. But does it? Perhaps this was not a negative nickname, but a positive one. Certainly people who have been caught up in toxic religions would have been better served had they listened to their doubts instead of following blindly — some even to the point of death.

Religious Recovery encourages doubts and questions. We recognize the need to reason and think for ourselves in order to build a strong faith, one that is our own and not based on the doctrines that may not resonate with us. Deepak Chopra stated “Religion is belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.”

Our experience may parallel that of a religious organization, but until we have questioned and doubted for ourselves, it is not our religion or our spirituality. We need to emulate Doubting Thomas and question our experience until our faith is our own, and not that of another.