The gospel according to Emily Dickinson:
“Faith is doubt.”
White is black. Up is down. Faith is doubt.
To say the that “faith is doubt” is like saying “answer is question.” Certainly it is a poetic expression of some reality, but it isn’t saying much of anything. It is hard for me to believe that Ms. Dickinson’s understanding of faith can be defined with such poetic poignancy.
If not, I doubt she knows faith.
Most people would say that “faith is how one deals with doubt.” Faith becomes the bridge that spans the gap of what is known before and what is beyond knowing. In crossing the bridge, what was beyond knowing can be known adequately. For some, faith was the end of a long struggle which included a small step of warranted belief. For others, faith involved a giant leap of faith over the huge chasm of doubt. Some wrestle with issues of doubt, others don’t bother with such things.
One small step for the some men, one giant leap for most of mankind.
Then there are those who never reach this place. They never cross the bridge. They keep the distance. They remain with what is known before, but never what is beyond. The tragedy is when they start making bold statements about what is beyond. They make statements like Ms. Dickinson, but really they have built a bridge that leads back to what was known before. So much effort to get where they were before. It is not that faith IS doubt, but that they have faith IN doubt.
Faith in doubt.
This is the good news according to so many atheists or agnostics. But how certain can you be when your greatest certainty is in uncertainty? I am not sure.
To say that there is greatest certainty in uncertainty is acceptable within the context of her disillusioned poetry where she excels. But to make a categorical statement claiming that greatest certainty is uncertainty reveals where her aptitude is. How can anyone be so certain about uncertainty. Its seems so self-defeating.
It is certain that she is an excellent poet.
It is uncertain that she excels in logic or philosophy.
Perhaps she is poetically expressing her philosophy of self-defeatism.
