Doubt as an operating system

   An article in the New York Times some months ago noted that 12 percent of Americans define themselves as “Nones”—those adhering to no religion—and many of these “Nones,” to make a lame pun on the term, are throwing off the habit of organized worship but not necessarily their belief in God.

   The author, Eric Weiner, says that we need an entrepreneur, in the mold of Steve Jobs, to invent “not a new religion, but a new way of being religious.” This new “operating system,” as Weiner calls it, would, among other benefits, celebrate doubt and elevate humor to an exalted component of worship. No less a champion of the faith than G. K. Chesterton, Weiner points out, said that “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”

   Jesus himself was a doubter and a wag of the first order—well, waggish at least in relation to the comedic standards of the day. His parables about the plank in your own eye and the camel going through the eye of a needle were intended as knee-slappers, but to his constant chagrin his audiences were a somber lot—they needed to be roused from the dead, like Lazarus.

   We see the same over-seriousness as to religion today, Weiner says, perhaps due in part to its association with politics, a decidedly earnest business. Many people, he suggests, would hold on to their religion if the politics weren’t part of the package.

   As to doubt, Jesus was a steadfast practitioner—in particular, he fretted over his followers’ lack of faith and staying power—which enabled him to clearly identify the chief doubters in his midst. And then, of course, near the bitter end, he doubted his own fortitude for the ordeal to come, not to mention the necessity of it all.  One can imagine him in the garden, first praying to be let off the hook, and then going resignedly to his doom, with a smile--maybe even with the Aramaic equivalent of “Let’s do it!” on his lips. What can you do but laugh?

   Weiner notes that only seven percent of “Nones” call themselves atheists. That may be because we (I consider myself a “None”) doubt that the atheist knows the “truth” any more than does the True Believer, or it may be because, for one reason or another, as Weiner says: “We may not believe in God, but we hope to one day. We have a dog in this hunt.”