Believing Is Seeing

A Review of Believe: Why Everyone Should be Religious by Ross Douthat

For generations, it has been assumed that the inevitable march of scientific and technological progress would vanquish religious belief. Yet, despite great advancements in man’s knowledge and material condition, religion persists, even in secularizing societies. It may take on different forms (utopian political dreams, conspiracy theories, psychedelics, UFOs, transhumanism), but the religious impulse of man remains. In his new book Believe, Ross Douthat makes the case that traditional religion still offers a robust, reasonable, beautiful pathway for exercising our religious impulse in ways that are conducive to human flourishing.

Douthat has been on the front lines of these discussions in his professional and personal life. As a New York Times columnist who doesn’t hide his conservatism nor his Christianity, he gets countless letters and emails from skeptics and believers alike. And the circles he moves in means that he has personal relationships with many folks who represent the various views discussed in the book. His own life experiences grant him further credibility: a religious journey spanning everything from the Episcopal Church to charismatic Christianity to Roman Catholicism, along with a lengthy, continual struggle with intense personal pain and suffering from Lyme disease.

The Best Explanation of Reality

Douthat begins his case for traditional religious belief by challenging the science-versus-religion mindset that has been so common since the Enlightenment and since Darwin. “The habit of thinking that regards scientific progress as perpetually diminishing the reasonability of religion has things backward,” he writes, and “the long arc of science, which initially seems to bend away from religion…ultimately bends back by confirming humanity’s unique position in a universe strangely suited to both our bodies and our minds.”

In such a universe, Douthat argues, religion explains the data points best. Order, design, hard-to-explain numinous experiences, suffering—all are best explained within a religious framework. The historic, systematized religions probably deserve our respect and consideration, he writes, since they have been tested and refined by the best thinkers and mystics over time. Do you think you could craft your own religious system, or mix and match one that does ­better? Douthat argues that’s highly unlikely if the goal is to find actual truth. What you’d more likely end up with is a god made in your own image and practices that make you feel good about yourself.

Then he turns specifically to Christianity and how it offers a rich bounty that satisfies both mind and soul: a blend of rationality and mystery; a grounding in historical events in a way that roots mystical experience in revealed truth; and practices that anchor us in reality and connect us to the God who has come into the world in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Warranted Belief

While you probably won’t agree with everything in the book, the final chapter is worth the price of admission, in my opinion. Douthat explains why he is a Christian, weaving together an accessible apologetic and intuitive account of how Christian truth claims hold up to scrutiny and make the best sense of reality. His case is equal parts ethos (ethics), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic), which makes it relatable, reasonable, and compelling.

Yes, even in 2025, Christianity is warranted belief. Not only that, but it also makes the most sense of what we see and experience. It gives us eyes to see. To turn a phrase on its head, believing is seeing. Christianity is what allows us to see reality as it truly is. And that ultimately satisfies the religious impulse we all have.