Doubt As Doorway To The Original Sin

Doubt would seem to be especially problematic from a Judeo-Christian perspective. After all, it was the 'seed of doubt' planted in Eve's ear by the serpent in the Garden of Eden--as told in the Book of Genesis--which is believed to have catapulted Humanity into a whole other realm. And that realm has not been kind to us! Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Toil. Fruitless labours. Painful births. Dukkha all around. Enough for everyone and everything.

So, if doubt itself is mythologically portrayed as being responsible for Humanity's Fall from Grace then one can see how there may be anawfully aversive relationship to doubt from a psychological perspective. It ends up generating a certain degree of dis-comfort within those who have been privvy to the tale of doubt in the Garden of Eden (especially those exposed to that story in a formative way, which generally means in childhood).

This story of doubt in our heads, pervading our culture, and at the epicenter of our Civilization, can create a climate where certainty and conviction are valued tremendously over any inkling of uncertainty or vagueness. And yet, being that we are not omniscience beings with an omnipresent perspective on anything, it stands to reason that doubt is essential if we are to be honest with ourselves. In fact, doubt may be a more honest path aligned with self-awareness than any sort of certainty or raw conviction. Doubt is the path of humility... and by that I don't mean humility of the self-depracating variety but of the intensely self-aware variety that takes into account or partial and incomplete understanding of things.

If only Cain and Abel were capable of doubt. If only Jew and Palestinian were capable of doubt. If only George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were capable of doubt. If only Karl Rove and Richard Pearl were capable of doubt. If only Adoplh Hitler and Joseph Stalin were capable of doubt. If onmly Jim Jones and David Koresh were capable of doubt. How much different would the world be? How much more benign?

How much more friendly would the world be if we were all a little less certain in our understanding of others; such that we were not so quick to judge and determine that so-and-so is a such-and-such? How much less likely would we be to pull the trigger? How much less likely would be to think a child is deserving of abuse; or that a lover is in need of some smacking around? How much different would the world be if we prevaricated in those intense moments were lives hang in the balance: where imminent death and destruction are only a doubt-free moment away?