CYNICISM, SKEPTICISM, DOUBT, and DISBELIEF

CYNICISM, SKEPTICISM, DOUBT, and DISBELIEF

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (2/28/2011)

In his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote a delightful piece of repartee between the Duchess of Monmouth and Dorian Gray in which she is trying to get him to reveal himself. When she asks about his religion, he replies that religion is “A fashionable substitute for Belief.” Probing further, she asks, “Are you a sceptic.” He replies, “Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith.”

In a somewhat flippant and paradoxical way, Wilde was onto the paradox inherent in faith because skepticism, unlike cynicism, assumes that something worthwhile lies behind and beyond the surface. Even the word “cynicism” gives a clue as to its meaning, originating, as it does, in the Latin word for dog, canis, from which we get our word “canine.” Cynicism is the snarling of a dog, a snarling that too often passes for sophistication. The snarler assumes that there is nothing worthwhile, obscure or hidden. As such, cynicism is a form of intellectual sloth.

Plato built his intellectual edifice upon a distinction between appearance and reality to the effect that appearance was merely a fading semblance of reality. Such a distinction haunts most thoughtful human beings. What is real? In a way, faith assumes skepticism because one cannot be a skeptic without believing there is some kind of reality behind the flux and flow of appearance. They’re also skeptical of claims for truth and ultimacy. A skeptical faith assumes a reality behind the appearance which means that the faithful are never absolutely sure of their convictions. Faith does not lead to absolute certainty but to the ability to live in uncertainty. Taking things at face value is to mistake things.










Doubt is another matter altogether. Doubt is the capacity to question one’s own convictions. In a graduate seminar years ago at the University of Chicago, Paul Tillich, one of the great theologians of the 20th century, said that “doubt is the growing edge of faith.” A person cannot doubt without first believing.



Convictions and beliefs are those intellectual afterthoughts that take place subsequent to a spiritual experience in which a person tries to understand the experience. There are always doubts when we I try to grasp the meaning of the experience. If we’re in a darkened room and catch a scent of perfume, though we may not see anyone, we may assume that someone has been present or is present. A lot of the most important experiences of our lives are like a darkened room where we sense a Presence all the while without seeing. Of course, there are lots of people with punk noses who never sense anything. They are called disbelievers. They live without awareness.

As we try to figure out the meaning of that haunting and illusive aroma, doubt is a necessary element in that I’m never absolutely sure that I’ve figured it out the right way. However, if I hear a rustling sound, I’ll be a little more certain even though I’ve never seen a thing. Disbelievers’ awareness has been dulled by a flat-lined secularity, leaving them adrift in a world that is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.”

Disbelief arises from a thwarted imagination. Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we no know and understand while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”


Plato’s point was there is more than the apparent. The disbeliever says “That’s all there is.” The cynic simple believes that whatever it is, it’s rotten. The doubter and the skeptic believe there is more than what they know and can prove. The skeptic questions claims to truth and the doubter is never sure of the truth of his own explanation. In short, the secularist lives in a closed world while faith leads to an open universe.

Stephen Pepper in his great book, World Hypotheses, in describing all the various metaphors that have been used to understand the universe, says that if a world hypothesis is broad enough to explain a broad range of facts, it will lack depth. If it has great depth, its range will be limited. Our mechanical universe stemming from Sir Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle lacks comprehensiveness. It has no place for beauty, love, hate, belief, disbelief, paranoia, and so forth. For this reason, doubt is essential because nothing can ever explain everything in depth. Faith is the ability to live amidst ambiguity and uncertainty with an imagination to believe over the horizon of our knowledge a Presence abides. “Just beyond the skyline He may stand.” Eugene Mason (1862-1935).

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2011