Leading a child into sin is not necessarily a huge thing. And if a child can sin the prime responsibility lies with the child for nobody can sin for anybody else. Jesus whoever incites hatred against those who lead a child into sin, ““But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea”. He specifies that it is children who believe in him. The implication is that if the child does not believe in Jesus then the sin of encouraging her or him to sin is not as bad. The implication is that leading a child to disbelieve in Jesus is off the scale evil. It is even better to be murdered by drowning. And leading a child to doubt Jesus cannot be far behind …
It is startling how many lie that, “I never had any doubt that there was a God.” If what they say is true then they are better witnesses to the faith than those who die for it for people do die for unconvincing causes.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that God has revealed its teaching to it. The Church teaches the believer who rejects any part of that teaching is accusing God of lying. For the Catholic, doubt is a sin.
Doubting the teaching is not necessarily accusing God of lying. It is necessarily accusing the Church of being wrong or deceitful or both. The Church falsely accuses those who contradict it of accusing God of lying.
The ban on doubt proves beyond doubt that religion is intrinsically anti-freedom of thought.
If we are allowed to doubt, it follows that we have the right to pick and choose what we like out of the faith and discard the nasty bits. Indeed, we would be bad people if we doubted whatever we felt like doubting but didn’t doubt the doctrine that people who die without repenting properly of having sex outside marriage will suffer forever in Hell without mercy. Many Christians show their true colours by doubting everything but the faith’s most vindictive doctrines.
Roman Catholicism is made of doctrines that are generally unworthy of refutation for they are so ridiculous and superstitious. Those who say they believe in Roman Catholicism and do not doubt are making an extraordinary claim. They would need to provide proof before expecting anybody to believe them!
Christians like to say a thousand difficulties do not comprise a doubt. That is to make you biased in favour of what they say you should believe. They point to the difficulties in materialistic or atheistic science and use them as an excuse for denying that the science may be correct! Their approach is dishonest and hypocritical and unfair.
A thousand difficulties do not make a doubt on their own. But if they make you dishonest like the Christians are being then that is a sign of doubt. You only use deceit to defend a faith you think is not really believable.
The sight of tremendous human suffering urges us to be cautious about saying there is an all-good and all-powerful God that lets all these things happen. Religion should encourage doubt not ban it. Lack of caution would be insulting to sufferers – it would be like, “Even if God is just being cruel to you I will worship him and defend what he is doing to you.”