Is questioning one's faith inevitable?

"faith" is the sum of the answers to our questions.

I think faith should be questioned. If it is not it would grow stagnant in a sense. Believing in something is a good thing but I think blind faith can be dangerous. Do you believe what you believe because you read it, thought about it, and chose it or do you believe it because a preacher or friend told you how it should be understood? Think about that question.... you just questioned your faith.

Edan wrote: As the title says, is it inevitable that one will eventually come to question their faith?

I wouldn't call it "inevitable", but rather "common".

questioning one's beliefs

It would be ludicrous, purposfully blinding and ignorant if you didn't.

Did I offend anyone?

Streen wrote:

Edan wrote: As the title says, is it inevitable that one will eventually come to question their faith?

I wouldn't call it "inevitable", but rather "common".

I donno, after living in the Bible Belt for so long I'm not too sure it's common either hahaha.

I don't think questioning your faith is inevitable but I do think it is very good practice. And one I try to follow quite often.

I remember as a young kid, I was sitting in Sunday School and being taught the 10 Commandments. I was told "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." meant "[Our Christian] God is the only one, true, God. All others are fake." I had already fallen in love with the mythology of the ages and I sat there thinking But...how could the Egyptians and the Romans and the Greeks have been so wrong? How can you go through life worshiping something that's fake? What makes us so much more right?

Unfortunately, I didn't have open-thinking role-models at the time and just accepted what I was fed for 20 years. I do appreciate the church I grew up in and the love of the congregation, and I do slightly envy those who don't seem to go through the angst of getting 'lost' while looking for answers to questions, but I feel like I'm a much better and stronger person for getting lost and poking around at what I believe in.

It's as natural and inevitable as a snake shedding its skin, yo. In other words, humans are intrinsically metaphysical. As consciousness evolves, so must ones beliefs or "faiths" correspond to this evolution. Faith must decay before it can grow anew, and since growth is a a natural property of consciousness, it follows that all faiths must in some sense decay. This sense of "decay" could be elaborated further, but I would generally consider "questioning" one's faith to be either a kind of decay or a symptom of decay, depending on how you want to approach describing the phenomena.

What is essential never really dies, however. So one may qualify my original answer with a few other distinctions and terms, etc.

I honestly believe if one is diligent about their studies they will take what they once learned from the frame of new knowledge (which may then be applied). This usually means completely reevaluating most personal outlooks in life and everything GOOD that will come from that.

On a side note, I question my faith of task everyday as everyday for me is a new challenge at university. Always be working on something that fulfills you and it will only help to align you to your innermost faith, the one which resonates the most for you.

Not really. Some people just go with it, never stopping to ask themselves 'why?'. A word of advice: there is no definitive answer to why we're here. At least I don't believe so. The only thing I know for certain is that I'm here, right now, and I'd rather not be spending all my time thinking about a possibly imaginary hell that I could or could not end up in because I didn't believe in something that was telling me how to live my life...

its an inevitable part of growth
if growth stops then faith may never be questioned (this is often the very reason that the growth stops - so fath doesnt have to be questioned) but at a certain point we can go no further without re-evaluating what we belive and updating ourselves and our views

i feel i have to always be open to new understanding.

its way more ok to see that i was wrong before and then adapt to new information than it is to deny truth because i am afraid or just stubborn

I have the enviable position of never being part of a religious family, yet I always sought out religion. Though the faiths I tried to follow never really felt 'right' and so I never committed to them. If faith is a deeply held conviction then I guess I have not really questioned my own faith (once I'd established what that was!) but that of others.

There are circumstances in life that anyone will inevitably question their faith, such as a death of a loved one etc. Especially if you are part of a faith that teaches reward for the good as the question arises as to: why that good person has been taken away and those good people left have to suffer the pain of that loss?

Yet, it is exactly these questions and our search for answers that will likely strengthen or break a persons faith.

I agree with OB1, I think questioning faith is essential for growth or progression (that's not to say that remaining where you are is not perfectly fine, things will just remain the same - if it's not broken don't fix it!)

People are inquisitive and on the whole I think we will continue to search for answers when our current system cannot provide them