Serbia: Thoughts on Doubt and Faith · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

Orthodox Christian believers will celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 19. On this occasion, some Serbian bloggers posted their thoughts about different legends and dogma related to Jesus Christ.
Vojislav Stojković wrote this (SRP) about doubt and Biblical resurrections:
Philosophy and science say that there should be doubt about everything (de omnibus dubitandum). To doubt the resurrection of Jesus is a great sin for the Church. Because of such doubts, a lot of people died from torture and burned at the stake during the Inquisition. But, at the beginning, the disciples of Jesus, especially one of them, the doubting Thomas, also had doubts about resurrection. Therefore, doubt shouldn’t be a sin. If I have doubts, I think. If I think, I exist (cogito, ergo sum). Every Easter, I ask myself what is better – to believe or to have doubt – and whether a man can choose between these at all?
These days Christians are celebrating their biggest holiday – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For them, there is irrefutable evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is really God’s son and that he was sent by God to save humanity. Although in the Revelation by St. John the Theologian it is written that Jesus was the firstborn from the world of the dead (Revelation 1:5), the resurrection of Jesus is neither the only, nor the first Biblical resurrection. It is the most famous one – but it is only the seventh.
[…]
The first resurrection was carried out by the Old Testament prophet Elijah. […] The second resurrection is attributed to prophet Eliseus. […] The third one of the Old Testament resurrections is also linked to prophet Eliseus – that is, to his remains. […] Before his own resurrection, Jesus resurrected three people. […] First, he raised from the dead a young man, who was a son of a widow from Naina. […] The second resurrection by Jesus, and the fifth one in the Bible, is the resurrection of Jair’s daughter (Luca 8: 49-55). […] The third one – the most famous miracle by Jesus and the sixth Biblical case, is the resurrection of Lazarus from Vitania. […] The seventh and the most significant is the resurrection of Jesus.
According to Christian learning, this last resurrection is different from others because Christ resurrected himself to live forever. He overcame death. Because of that, as St. John the Theologian wrote, Christ was the firstborn from the dead. […]
At the end of his post, Stojković repeated what he wrote at the beginning:
[…] Doubt, therefore, shouldn’t be a sin because “I have a doubt” means “I think” – and “I think” means “I exist” (cogito, ergo sum). Those who don’t have doubts – they believe. They hold hard to their faith today, 20 and more centuries after the events described in the Bible or the Koran. […]
[…] Every Easter, I ask myself what is better – to believe or to have doubt – and whether a man can choose between these at all? […]
Here is the first one of over 150 comments to this post, by Libkonz:
I think it shouldn’t deprive the man of the right to think. One thing is when he recognizes God by his own heart and quite another thing is when someone is forcing what he should think on him.
Stojković replies:
No, it is not about forcing to believe. I don’t think about that. Another, more subtle thing is at stake here. Why does the modern and very educated man in the 21st century, in spite of all the technical and scientific miracles, still believe what was written 20 and more centuries ago? This is the question that's bothering me.
Aleksandar Vasović wrote this (SRP) about the Islamic view of Jesus Christ:
Jesus, in Islam – Isa, is God's deputy who was sent to lead Israel's children into the New Testament (Indzil). According to the Koran, Maria (Maryam, Merjema) bore Isa after the immaculate conception. That was a wonderful event, directed by Allah. […]
Islam teaches that Isa will come back to Earth to establish justice and to defeat the false prophet Antichrist on the Judgment Day. As all prophets of Islam, Isa is a Muslim because he preached about accepting the right way and the faith in only one God. […]
Islam rejects the Christian teaching that Isa was God's incarnation or son; it says that he was a common man who was sent to preach God's words like all the other prophets.
In Islam, Isa has two titles: the Messiah and the Anointed. Islam teaches that Isa was Mohammad's predecessor and that he predicted the arrival of the Prophet [Mohammad].