Faith and Honest Inquiry

What does it mean to be honest -- not just in what you say, but in what you believe? These essays begin with that question and follow it into difficult territory.

They do not argue against religion. They argue that honesty does not stop at the edge of faith. That the bigger the claim, the more careful we should be. That a person can hold deep reverence and still refuse to pretend that uncertainty has been conquered.

Read in order, they move from the foundations of honest thinking through the specific challenges religion poses to that honesty.

Honesty and Truth -- What honesty really requires: not just sincerity, but caring whether what you believe is actually true.

Objective Reality -- There is a world outside our wishes. Truth-seeking means bringing belief into contact with that world, not protecting it from examination.

The Arrogance of Certainty -- What happens when certainty hardens into judgment about another person's inner life -- and why humility is the more moral response.

The Seduction of Secret Knowledge -- Why certain beliefs capture people not because they are true, but because they feel rewarding -- and what that does to honest inquiry.

If There Is a God, the Bible Can Still Be Wrong -- The existence of God and the infallibility of a book are two separate questions. Confusing them may be one of the oldest intellectual mistakes we make.

If Christ Is God -- If Christ is divine, then the misuse of his teachings is not a minor historical accident. It becomes one of the central moral mysteries of Christianity itself.

Christ as the Einstein of His Time -- A different way of thinking about Christ: not as a theological package to accept or reject, but as someone who may have seen moral reality more clearly than the age around him.