The Bible is not interested in arguing, because if you state a thesis of belief you have already stated it's opposite; if you say, I believe in God, you have already suggested the possibility of not believing in him. [p.250]
Interpretation
This quote suggests that expressing a belief inherently acknowledges the possibility of doubt or disbelief.
Northrop Frye's quote reflects a philosophical perspective on belief and doubt. By stating a belief, such as faith in God, one also implies the existence of its contrary—doubt or disbelief. This duality highlights the complexity of faith and the human condition, where beliefs cannot be entirely separated from doubts.
In practice
In a discussion about faith and belief systems, you might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of human belief.
A reader who quarrels with postulates, who dislikes Hamlet because he does not believe that there are ghosts or that people speak in pentameters, clearly has no business in literature. He cannot distinguish fiction from fact, and belongs in the same category as the people who send checks to radio stations for the relief of suffering heroines in soap operas.
Literature is a human apocalypse, man's revelation to man, and criticism is not a body of adjudications, but the awareness of that revelation, the last judgement of mankind.
To bring anything really to life in literature we can't be lifelike: we have to be literature-like
The world of literature is a world where there is no reality except that of the human imagination.
We do not live in a centred space any more, but have to create our own centres.
Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.
If you strive only to avoid the darkness or to cling to the light, you cannot live in balance. Try striving to be conscious of all that you are.
Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.
It is... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague.
A zeal for different opinions concerning religion...[has] divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.
When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward, I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.
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