Faith and Skepticism

Ran into this quote in Soren Kierkegaard's Works of Love: 

"Indeed, one can be deceived in many ways; one can be deceived in believing what is untrue, but on the other hand, one is also deceived in not believing what is true; one can be deceived by appearances, but one can also be deceived by the superficiality of shrewdness, by the flattering conceit which is absolutely certain that it cannot be deceived" (23).
I find Kierkegaard's words encouraging and insightful, particularly now living in the largely secular academic community of Oxford. There's a great deal of incredulity to the claims of Christianity--to the claims of the supernatural, in general, when they seem to contradict the accepted wisdom of the natural sciences and popular morality. The narrow minded who believe the incredible are seen as blinded or deceived. The great philosopher reminds us that the posture of skeptical superiority can also produce self-deception.