We Have Access to Answers, So Why Are We Less Certain?

A podcast listener recently sent me a question about the resurrection:
“How can we know the resurrection actually happened? I’ve done so much research and am trying to convince myself. I just can’t seem to fully get there.”

I kept thinking about the way they asked the question. They weren’t dismissing Christianity or looking for an argument. They wanted to believe. They had read the books, listened to the podcasts, studied the evidence, and still couldn’t get all the way there.

Maybe you know that feeling.

We have more information available to us than at any other time in history. We can look up almost anything within seconds. We can listen to experts, compare interpretations, read reviews, watch debates, and ask AI to explain the whole thing in five bullet points.

You would think all of that access would make us more certain.

It hasn’t.

For every argument, there is a counterargument. For every expert, there is another expert who says the first one has it wrong. We check the source, then check the source behind the source, and eventually wonder whether any of it can be trusted. Is it ‘fake news?’
 
Artificial intelligence has made this even more complicated. It can give us an answer that sounds clear and confident, but we’re still not sure where the answer came from or whether it is true. According to Pew Research, Americans are almost evenly divided over whether the country can responsibly regulate AI. Forty-four percent have at least some trust, while 47 percent have little or no trust.

We are fascinated by this technology and suspicious of it at the same time.

Our suspicion goes well beyond AI. We question the government, the media, universities, corporations, and churches. Some of that skepticism is probably healthy. We have learned that the person speaking with the most confidence is not always the person telling the truth.

Churches have not always handled this well.

For a long time, many churches treated certainty as proof of faith. If you asked too many questions, people became concerned about you. Doubt meant something was wrong. A good Christian accepted what they were taught and didn’t make everyone uncomfortable by bringing up the complicated parts.

That approach no longer works. I’m not convinced it ever did.

People can now check what a pastor says before the sermon is finished. They can hear from biblical scholars outside their denomination or tradition. They can read about church history, the development of doctrine, biblical interpretation, abuse within religious institutions, and the political compromises made by Christian leaders.

Then they start asking questions.

What else didn’t the church tell me? Why did everything sound so simple when I was growing up? Why were my questions treated as a threat?

The research shows that something significant is happening. Pew reports that 29 percent of American adults now identify as religiously unaffiliated. According to PRRI, that number is approximately 34 percent among Gen Z and 25 percent among Gen X. Pew also found that 35 percent of American adults have changed their religious identity since childhood.

We need to be careful with those numbers. The story is not simply that young people no longer care about faith. Barna has reported increased church attendance among some Gen Z and millennial Christians, along with signs of renewed interest in Jesus.

So, something more complicated is going on.

Many people are still interested in God, Jesus, spirituality, meaning, and purpose. They just aren’t sure the church is a safe or honest place to explore those questions.

Gen X, my generation, is an important part of this story. We often talk as though leaving church began with millennials and Gen Z. It didn’t. Many in Gen X were already becoming suspicious of celebrity pastors, highly produced worship experiences, church growth formulas, and leaders who seemed to have a certain answer for everything.

Some didn’t stop believing in Jesus. They stopped attending church.

That distinction matters.

What if people are not leaving because they are unwilling to believe? What if they are tired of pretending to be more certain than they are? What if they have questions the church never gave them permission to ask?

That brings me back to the listener’s question about the resurrection.

We sometimes think faith will arrive once we gather enough information. If we can read one more book, listen to one more sermon, or go to a conference, all uncertainty will disappear.

But that is not how most of life works.

You can research a career move, talk to trusted friends, make a list of advantages and disadvantages, and still not know how it will turn out. You can know someone for years and still take a risk when you decide to marry them. You can study leadership and still face situations where there is no obvious decision.

We make important decisions without complete certainty all the time.

That doesn’t mean evidence is unimportant. The resurrection is a claim about something that happened in history. We should examine the Gospel accounts, consider the early Christian testimony, listen to scholars who believe and scholars who don’t, and take the alternatives seriously.

I believe there are compelling reasons to believe Jesus rose from the dead. I also know that I cannot give someone an argument that makes doubt impossible.

Maybe that is where the church needs to become more honest.

There is a difference between conviction and pretending to know more than we do. Conviction allows us to say, “This is what I believe, and these are the reasons I believe it.” It also allows us to say, “I still have questions.”

People can usually tell when a leader is giving them a rehearsed answer instead of an honest one. They may not expect us to know everything. They do expect us to tell the truth.

When Jesus appeared to his disciples after the crucifixion, they were frightened and confused. Some doubted what they were seeing. Jesus didn’t criticize them or tell them to come back when their theology was settled. He stayed with them. He spoke peace. He allowed them to take in what was happening.

I think the church can learn something from that.

People need communities where they can be honest about what they believe, what they doubt, and what they are still trying to understand. They need pastors and leaders who are not afraid of difficult questions. They need room to seek without feeling as though they are disappointing God or making everyone nervous.

We have access to plenty of answers. What we don’t always have are people and places where we can work through them honestly.

Faith doesn’t begin when every question has been answered. Sometimes it begins with the willingness to remain open.

Maybe the most honest prayer is not, “God, I have no doubts.”

Maybe it is simply, “God, I want to believe. Meet me here.”

Listen to episode 204 of the All Saints Podcast: "I Want to Believe—But How Can I Know?"