A review of Ross Douthat’s ‘Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious’

In Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, author Ross Douthat argues that it is rational to not only believe that God exists but to pursue a relationship with him through the path of religion. His book is an effort to demonstrate why it’s not enough to simply be spiritual but not religious and, in so doing, he outlines a way of doing apologetics that is tailor-made for our culture today.

That said, there are a few things to keep in mind before really engaging with Believe, as his approach may seem counterintuitive and even borderline heretical at times to those who come from a more evangelical context. 

To begin, Douthat is a devoted Christian and Catholic who, as he outlines in the book’s final chapter, believes that “God has acted in history through Jesus of Nazareth in a way that differs from every other tradition and experience and revelation . . . So where there is uncertainty, tension, a wager to be made, I make my bet on Jesus.” And he unpacked his personal beliefs in even greater depth in his conversation with Dr. Mark Turman and me on The Denison Forum Podcast. 

I bring Douthat’s faith up now because the bulk of his book argues for religion and belief in more general terms than many Christians may be accustomed to. And while he clearly believes that Christianity is the most complete and accurate path to God, he argues that you don’t have to pick a religion from the start. That you begin that journey is more important than where you begin.

That idea may sound foreign and a bit concerning to those who have grown up being taught that Christianity is the only path to God, but I think it’s one of the more helpful concepts in the book. 

It’s not wrong to believe that Jesus is the only means by which we can be saved. After all, he said as much himself (John 14:6). However, if Christianity is the ultimate and most complete revelation of God, then we shouldn’t be afraid of people starting their search for him in different places. So long as their goal is to find him rather than to just find community or a sense of belonging—an important distinction—then we can trust that the God who is truth can bring people to himself even if they don’t start with Christianity.  

Again, that’s not to say that every road offers a path to salvation or that each religion is just a different road up the same mountain—a concept that Douthat pans in his book as well—but it’s much easier to help people find Jesus if they are already asking questions about God than if they have no interest in the conversation at all. And that idea leads to another of the key points Douthat makes in the book.

Why religion is rational

The other argument that runs throughout the foundation of Believe is that it’s more rational to believe that God does exist than that he doesn’t. As he describes in the introduction, helping people to understand that reality is a crucial piece of the puzzle, particularly if they are coming from a more secularized context.

The belief that God does not exist functions almost as the cost of entry into many parts of modern society. As he describes in the introduction, “More and more of my readers seemed to experience secularism as an uncomfortable intellectual default, not a freely chosen liberation. More and more seemed unhappy with their unbelief.”

Douthat goes on to describe how he hears from many who wish they could believe and miss what they found in the community of Christianity done well. Helping these hurting people understand that belief in God is not only intellectually viable but actually the more rational choice constitutes a large portion of the book. But while his arguments are well worth reading and he does an excellent job of explaining many of the apologetic reasons for believing in God, I found the most helpful part of his argument to be the way in which he spoke about what is required for an idea to be rational. 

You see, one of the mistakes that Christian apologists often make is acting as though we can prove that God exists or that the teachings of Christianity are true. We can’t, and to act otherwise is dishonest. The thing is, though, we don’t have to.

Whether or not God exists is a binary choice. As such, the most rational way to approach the question is to evaluate the evidence and then make a decision based on which outcome is most likely. In that regard, the preponderance of evidence clearly supports the idea that God exists. 

While we can debate the nature of God, which religion represents him most accurately, and a host of other theological queries, we’re unlikely to get to that point if we can’t agree on that basic truth. Helping people to understand that they don’t have to be certain about that fact before continuing the discussion is a crucial place to start. And, as Douthat spends much of the book explaining, there is ample reason for people to at least reach the point where they can entertain the basic truth that God is real. 

Stretched, challenged, and blessed

Ross Douthat’s Believe is one of the more helpful books I’ve read in recent years for understanding not only why it makes sense to believe that God exists but also how to help others do the same. However, there are aspects of his approach and concessions that, at times, may feel like a bridge too far for many Christians—particularly those coming to it from a more evangelical context. 

In such moments, it’s important to remember that the primary group for whom he wrote this book is not fellow Christians who are already confident in their faith. Rather, it is for people who are trying to wrestle with the basic idea that it’s alright to believe in God. 

But wherever you fit along that spectrum, there is much to be gained by reading Believe, and praying through what Douthat has written. My understanding was stretched, my preconceived notions challenged, and, ultimately, my faith grew in ways that genuinely brought me closer to the Lord as a result of reading it. And my prayer is that the same can happen for you as well.

Notable quotes:

• “Religious belief is not just an option but an obligation—and offers a blueprint for thinking your way from secularism into religion, from doubt into belief.”
• “We’ll start with religion’s intellectual advantage: the ways in which nonbelief requires ignoring what our reasoning faculties tell us, while the religious perspective grapples more fully with the evidence before us.”
• Religion is “a system of belief and practice that tries to connect human beings to a supernatural order, that offers moral guidance in this world and preparation for the possible hereafter, and that tries to explain both the order of the world and the destiny of humankind.”
• “As its promises of liberation dissolve, as unhappiness and angst and regret take over, atheism defends itself by pretending to be hardhearted, extremely serious, the price you pay for intellectual adulthood. It is none of these things. It is the religious perspective that asks you to bear the full weight of being human. It is the religious perspective that grounds both intellectual rigor and moral idealism. And most importantly, it is the religious perspective that has the better case by far for being true.”
• “The perfectly open-minded attitude should yield at some point to commitment, but the committed mind doesn’t have to become entirely closed.”

“I think the New Testament is just clearly different from other religious texts in a way that stands out and demands attention, that the figure of Jesus likewise stands out among religious founders, that together the sources and the story and the Nazarene Himself all seem God-touched to (page break) a degree unmatched by any of their rivals. So where there is uncertainty, tension, a wager to be made, I make my bet on Jesus” (emphasis his).