Since the beginning of time, people have questioned the mysteries and wonders of the world. Because of this questioning, the first religions began to form among the earliest human beings. However, many people saw religion an insignificant method to answering the questions of life. These people have been known as doubters.
Doubting began among the first humans, but it did not become a popular method until the Hellenistic Age among the Greeks. It was during this time that one of the first groups of doubters was forming. This group was known as the Cynics.
Although the word cynic now means someone whose outlook is negative, in Greek, the word �cynic� literally meant dog. This was because the main teaching of the group was �live like a dog� meaning you should not worry or try to accomplish anything. It also stressed independence, virtue, and a simple, natural lifestyle opposed to seeking the pleasures of life. It is because of these values that the founder of the Cynics, Diogenes, believed the primary essence of the universe was air, because it is independent and can take many different forms.
Another popular group of doubters in Greece was the Skeptics. Socrates, the first skeptic, was believed to know the most, because he recognized the fact that he did not know most things and the human mind itself is not designed to know things. Originally, skeptic was the denial to be able to know anything, but the word was later changed to mean the study of probabilities.
An additional group formed in ancient Greece was the Epicureans. Epicurus, the founder of the Epicureans, taught that you should avoid fear and pain and enjoy the moment. He also taught that religion should be avoided because it causes fear, and the worst possible thing to do, would be to allow fear to run your life. However, he had also said, �If praying makes you feel good, then pray.� Although, he believed their would be no one listening, he still taught that if it made you feel more secure, then you should do it. He claimed that the causes of this fear, like the gods and death, must be avoided at all costs in order to live a good life.
From these three groups of doubters, you can see that doubt is not the rejection of beliefs, but graceful life philosophies trying to give their best answer to the main question asked among doubters; �How should we live.� Doubters, although many are against the idea of religion, do not hate religion and are usually more like religious thinkers than most and admit that �religion is a crucial part of the human experience�. However, not all doubters are against religion and many doubters are actually great heroes of faith in the Bible.
Even though religions gloss over the story of Job, the story of Job shows how Job doubts a just God because he has done good things and has received evil, but in the end realizes he is unable to answer this question. Ecclesiastes is another book in the Bible of doubt. It is much like stoic teachings because it claims everyone is part of the same universal spirit. Finally, Jesus is also doubter at times, like while on the cross when he cries, �My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.� Jesus also teaches how to endure through doubt unlike many other religions at the time such as Judaism and many pagan religions. Jesus also invented the idea that faith has doubt and it is important to take a leap of faith when following him. Like Christianity, many religions are influenced by doubt such as Zen Buddhism. This is because it is human impulse to question and doubt in order to find meaning. Unfortunately, during the Middle Ages, the Church began to persecute doubters although it was an important part of Christianity.
After these persecutions, schools closed, cities decreased in size, and doubters began to move east from Rome to the Byzantine Empire. With the doubters, philosophy schools arose and cities flourished. Nevertheless, they were once again persecuted and were forced to move even farther east to Antioch, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the Mid East.
Once again, schools were built, more people became philosophers, and the economy flourished causing the Islam Golden Age. As time passed and Islam grew, doubters experienced both positive and negative reactions. For instance, Al-Razi wrote many books on doubt and was loved by the Islamic community, but Eminent Al Warrak was too afraid to write under his own name. Before long, doubting ends in Islam because many saw it as danger towards the faith.
Doubters were forced west through Africa and eventually reaching Spain where it was accepted highly among the Orthodox Jews living there. Orthodox Jews began to teach, because of the idea of rationalism, that God is the only thing they can be sure of. From Spain, the doubters move on toward Western Christianity causing medieval doubt and the start of the Renaissance. Doubt had circled the Mediterranean and ended where it had begun. Since then, each generation�s doubt has become the next�s generation�s certainty, which is then doubted, becoming an endless cycle of doubt.
After the New World had been colonized, doubts found a new haven in the Americas. Benjamin Franklin, a doubter of revelation, became the most famous doubter in the colonies. Another famous doubter in America was Thomas Edison who stated in the New York Times that he did not believe in an afterlife, an act few would dare to perform today. It was also during the ninetieth century that the slaves were freed. These freed slaves now believed they could question any document, no matter how sacred.
Until the Cold War, especially in the early twentieth century, doubters were warmly accepted in the United States. It was during the Cold War that communism was in full effect and people thought all the communists were atheists, which was not true concerning all communist countries. Since all communists were atheists, according to society, and being a communist was treason, then all atheists were believed to be treasonous. It was during this time that �under God� was forced to be said in the National anthem and �in God we trust� was added on American coins and bills. However, with an increase in atheists and agnostics, doubting is becoming more relevant in our society today.
Although it is commonly believed that doubt was good in ancient times, but is bad in the modern era, it is important to understand that we naturally doubt and experience wonders, and doubters celebrate this. Great doubters do not simply deny ideas and beliefs, but realize that questioning is the way they wish to live their life. Atheism is seen now as a dismissal of all wonder and ritual, but ancient doubters saw the wonder and rituals and realized that humans invented magical ideas and feel a personal feeling when within a group, which is stressed by religion. Those who deny religion should not deny wonder. As doubt moves into the next generation, we need to realize that we should not attack these doubters, but we should recognize its long history and its significance to the development of the world.