I’ve noticed a trend among edu­ca­tors and stu­dents (espe­cially after read­ing Craig’s Hard Ques­tions, Real Answers). A trend which con­fuses think­ing about one’s beliefs, world­view and fol­low­ing pre­sup­po­si­tions and doubt­ing one’s beliefs, world view and fol­low­ing pre­sup­po­si­tions. This trend states that doubt is a virtue and insep­a­ra­ble from thought — one can­not think about one’s beliefs with­out first adopt­ing a posi­tion of doubt with respect to one’s beliefs. The more intense the thought, the greater the doubt. This is sim­ply not the case.

There is a cer­tain irre­spon­si­bil­ity, I believe, when a Chris­t­ian edu­ca­tor or stu­dent takes on the role of ‘Devil’s Advo­cate’ — have they no appre­ci­a­tion for the daily spir­i­tual bat­tles we find our­selves in? Irre­spon­si­ble in that one must ques­tion why a Chris­t­ian would ever want to describe them­selves as being an advo­cate for the Devil? If objec­tions are to be raised with respect to one’s beliefs then shouldn’t pos­si­ble answers to those objec­tions also be pre­sented? As stated by William Lane Craig, ‘We can chal­lenge peo­ple to think more deeply and rig­or­ously about their Chris­t­ian faith with­out encour­ag­ing them to doubt their faith’.1