“Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.”
Luke 9:49
“It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”
Psalm 118:8
The Courage to Examine Faith
Faith is, at its heart, something deeply personal. It shapes how a person understands the world, how decisions are made, and where meaning is found. Yet even sincere believers sometimes find questions stirring within them. Doubts can appear quietly, almost uninvited. When that happens, many wonder whether such questioning is wrong—perhaps even sinful—or whether it might instead be part of a genuine search for truth and a closer walk with God.
People question their religion for many reasons. Some do so out of an honest desire to understand their faith more clearly and to be certain it truly reflects God’s will. Others, it must be admitted, may seize upon doctrinal disagreements as a convenient way to loosen moral restraints. But questioning itself is not the real issue. The deeper question is why we ask.
When my wife and I eventually stepped away from our religion, it was not done lightly or in haste. We wanted to return to the very foundation of our faith, so we began reading the Gospels and the Book of Acts with fresh eyes. We asked ourselves a simple but searching question: What do God and Jesus actually ask of us? The path was not easy, yet it led to a sense of freedom we had never known before.
For nearly thirty years I had lived with the feeling of being constantly occupied by religious demands. Life moved in a blur of obligations, leaving little room to pause and reflect. Even simple pleasures—a quiet evening watching a film or a day of rest—could carry a faint sense of guilt, as though something more important was being neglected. When we stepped away from that structure, a new kind of quiet entered our lives. I found time to read Scripture slowly and thoughtfully, without the weight of expectation pressing from the outside. It felt like breathing fresh air after years indoors.
Around that time I read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, a book describing life in North Korea. It revealed how people can live with two conflicting beliefs at once. Citizens are taught that their leader is almost divine, yet many quietly recognize the absence of proof. To voice such doubts, however, risks isolation or punishment.
The parallels with my own experience were unsettling. In the religious system I had known, questioning the structure itself was discouraged, sometimes strongly. The consequences were not prison walls, but they could still be painful—strained relationships, quiet distance, or social exclusion. Doubt was often treated as disloyalty, and leaving could mean losing much of one’s world.
Yet the Bible itself offers a very different example. In Acts 17 we read of the Bereans, who listened to Paul and Silas preach but did not accept their message blindly. Instead, they examined the Scriptures daily to see whether what they heard was true. For that careful spirit they were called noble. Their faith was not passive; it was thoughtful and searching.
When I began examining my own beliefs in that same spirit, many assumptions began to crumble. It was not a rebellion against God but a quiet return to Him. I wanted to know Him more directly—not through layers of human interpretation and tradition, but through the words of Scripture itself.
It does trouble me when people leave a religion and abandon faith altogether, sometimes directing their hurt toward God. Yet the Scriptures gently remind us not to place our ultimate trust in human beings. People can disappoint us; institutions can fail. God, however, remains unchanged. Walking away from a religious system does not necessarily mean turning away from Him. In some cases, it may open the door to knowing Him more deeply.
I often reflect on the question raised in the story of Eden: will humanity remain loyal to God, or will we choose our own path apart from Him? That question still echoes today. But the choice is not limited to blind loyalty to human institutions on one side or complete rejection of faith on the other. There is another path—the quiet pursuit of truth, guided by a sincere desire to know God.
So is it wrong to question one’s religion? I do not believe it is. Honest questions can refine faith, remove unnecessary burdens, and lead to clarity. As Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Truth is not something a believer should fear. It is something worth seeking with an open heart.