“We have nothing, if not belief,” said "The Chronicles of Narnia's" talking mouse Reepicheep. True to form, this beloved Narnian makes what is supposedly a children’s story into something profound. He reminds us that belief is essential to our being — something that is too easily forgotten.
Certainly one of the most foundational principles of modern epistemology is the fact-opinion dichotomy. Can something be proven logically, scientifically or likewise? If not, it possesses no claim on the coveted status of “fact.” Instead, it is nothing but opinion. Nasty little thing, isn’t it? This dichotomy is also manifested in a discussion of objectivity as opposed to subjectivity. Supposedly, the only things that can be actually known are those that reside in the realm of objectivity. Art, music, poetry, the subjective experiences — they are amusing, to be sure, but there can be no real truth in them. They are not objective, and thus subject to nothing but whim and passion... Or so the dichotomy goes.
Frankly, I don’t buy it. Or at least not completely. That method of perceiving fact leaves no room for belief or conviction, a tremendous oversight. The fact (pun intended) is that human beings are much more complex than the fact-opinion dichotomy gives them credit for. There is a form of knowledge that is not gleaned from demonstrable fact but is convincing nonetheless. It's called belief or conviction. Our culture has so far fallen under the spell of the factoid that the word “belief” now connotes nothing greater than a firmly-held opinion. The entire category of knowing it once referred to is rejected out of hand.
What a tragedy! Our beliefs form the core of our being, and to disavow them is to deny a foundational aspect of being human. G.K. Chesterton once pointed out that our most deeply-held beliefs are the hardest to rationally defend. The reason is that there are some truths that are grasped primarily by the spirit. The intellect can dance around them, but they are not essentially intellectual. They are thus nearly impossible to prove by the standards applied to science, logic or other forms of “pure reason.” However, that does not invalidate them. Just the opposite, in fact. To be convicted is to comprehend something beyond words. Far from being an inferior sort of knowledge, belief is what brings us into contact with the finer things. Love, hope, sacrifice — these are what make us human. Further, they are the things that make us more than human for they are of the Divine. These things are not “facts,” yet we believe in their power, and rightly so.
In another of his fine books, "The Abolition of Man," C.S. Lewis diagnoses the problem with the modern intellectual drive as an obsession with “seeing through” things. A manic attempt to analyze (literally to “break apart” in order to understand) everything that we experience has resulted in the destruction of much of what makes life worth living. It takes away our ability to appreciate the mystery that envelops us. We have become radically disenchanted. We no longer wonder. We merely want to know, but we are ruled by a morbid, power-lusting curiosity rather than one of love and respect. Lewis wants us to realize that our quest to see through everything leads only to a sort of death. Think of what would happen if you made everything transparent, physically or metaphorically. To see through everything, Lewis points out, is to see nothing.
In the end, then, to believe in something transcendent is not naiveté, but humanity — stark, noble humanity. It acknowledges man’s connection to something more powerful than himself, more real than his opinions but too real to be reduced to demonstrable facts. “We have nothing, if not belief.” Reepicheep was a wise little rodent. He saw human beings more clearly than most of us do ourselves.