h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Doubt is good.

For all of you out there who half the time think that they are blessed, and the other half wonder if they are mad, I'll say that again - doubt is good.

After all consider the alternative - faith.

Faith is what the monotheistic, middle-eastern cults such as christianity demand of their followers. Belief is insufficient for their doctrine, you must go that extra step and have faith, where 'faith' is a blind, unquestioning belief in things that are hard to swallow or that you just do not understand. The key word here is 'unquestioning' because, when you have body of scripture that is as full of holes and contradictions as the christians have, you need faith just to get out of bed in the morning.

An established church or temple requires a large number of followers to support it and its hierarchy. The money has to come from somewhere. If you have a situation where people are allowed to question the central doctrines of the church or temple then you have anarchy (or, as they like to put it, 'heresy'). So faith is in, and doubt is banished.

As druids though we must welcome doubt and embrace our inner atheist. We are supposed to be natural philosophers after all, seekers of truth about the cosmos and all within it. You cannot be a seeker without doubt, without questions and without the capability for heresy.

Doubt drives us to seek truth, to question that which we do not understand, and to be willing to listen to our gods, the spirits of the land and our ancestors.

Faith leads to blind belief, to ignorance and thus to stagnation.
Doubt leads to enquiry, to understanding and thus to growth.

Doubt is good.