I am convinced that no one can be forced to believe anything. We can pretend to believe, act like we believe, talk like we believe but, in the end, if it doesn't ring true with our own understanding of reality, we simply cannot believe it. This understanding is often called the conscience. Whatever you call it, it is the recognition that somewhere in the depths of our being resides an understanding of what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad.

Now there is no question that many of us spend a good deal of time and energy trying to deny this reality. Indeed, there are some people who have become so adept at ignoring it that they operate without the conscience's restraint. These people are most often known as psychopaths. But for the rest of us, this inner voice is certainly present and calls us to utilize it in making our decisions.

Whenever we are told to believe something that goes against that inner voice, we enter dangerous ground. A faith that demands divergence from what we know intrinsically to be true is a faith not worth having.

I remember that wonderful passage in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland where the Queen says to Alice, "I am 101 years old" and Alice replies, "I can't believe that!" Whereupon the Queen sneers, "Oh you can't? Well close your eyes, take a deep breath and try again!" It didn't work for Alice and it won't work for us. You cannot believe what you know, deep down, to be false.

Harry Emerson Fosdick once wrote, "All intelligent faith in God has behind it a background of humble agnosticism." I certainly concur and am convinced that a healthy faith must include the recognition that we can never assume to know the full workings of God. So much of the damage that religion has caused is based on this terrible conceit.

Along with a humble agnosticism, a healthy faith has a certain degree of skepticism within it. "Why?" is the operative word here. When someone tells you to believe this or that proposition, we have every right to ask why. If the answer is "Because I said so!" be wary. The very source of my own religion once urged his followers to "become as a little child". Such advice, I believe, urges us to question everything...just as a child does. I don't know about yours but my kids never stopped asking questions. The last thing they were was blindly obedient. We shouldn't be either.

There is a wonderful bumper sticker that proclaims, "Question Authority". When a religion demands that questioning should stop, its adherents should run in the opposite direction.

Finally, I believe that a healthy faith seeks reconciliation with others. A healthy faith doesn't alienate itself from those with differing opinions, differing beliefs. If we find ourselves frightened by contact with other belief systems, it is a strong indication that something is wrong with our own belief. If our faith is so fragile that it cannot withstand questions from others, it probably needs to be questioned by us.