Doubt

Doubt can result in delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concern for mistakes or missed opportunities.

It may also form other brands of skepticism, such as Pyrrhonism, which do not take a positive stance in regard to the existence of god(s), but remain negative.

On the other hand, doubt as to some doctrines but acceptance of others may lead to the growth of heresy and/or the splitting off of sects or groups of thought.

Thus proto-Protestants doubted papal authority, and substituted alternative methods of governance in their new (but still recognizably similar) churches.

No such evidence could ever be enough to pragmatically justify the kind of total commitment involved in true theological belief or romantic love.

[4][5] Most criminal cases within an adversarial system require that the prosecution proves its contentions beyond a reasonable doubt — a doctrine also called the "burden of proof".

Isaac Asimov, in his 1962 essay collection Fact and Fancy, described science as a system for causing and resolving intelligent doubt.