In his new book Finding God in the Questions, ABC News' Dr. Tim Johnson writes about his own journey of faith from both a personal angle, and from a medical and scientific viewpoint. Read the excerpt below.
1: Why Do the Questions Keep Coming?
Passages between the seasons of life have a way of provoking questions to answers we take for granted because we've been living with them for so long. When change occurs, old questions often take on critical importance again. For many people religion provides answers (or at least a sense of security) to the big questions of life. For others the absolute claims of religion raise more questions than they answer. I have lived on both sides — and in some senses I still do. My path of faith has wandered through both doubt and belief, often at the same time.
Doubt doesn't have to tear down belief, however; it can purify it. When it does, the beliefs on the other side become more certain. This is why I would like to affirm that it is possible to find God even while you are still asking the big questions.
The pivotal points in my own pilgrimage have occurred when I crossed thresholds of change — from inherited beliefs to intense questioning, from intense questioning to discovering when truly believed and disbelieved. It is not an easy thing to let go of what is comfortable to make room for what is uncertain, but human life is a succession of such passages, from childhood through old age. I now find myself on such a threshold once again — and it is forcing me to both discover what I truly believe and examine whether I am truly living what I do believe.
