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.
I was a personality before I became a person - I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy and driven.
It's not a problem that we're sinners; it's a problem that we aren't ashamed of our sin and don't seek forgiveness.
Hegel seems to me to be always wanting to say that things which look different are really the same. Whereas my interest is in showing that things which look the same are really different. I was thinking of using as a motto for my book a quotation from King Lear: 'I’ll teach you differences'. ... 'You’d be surprised' wouldn’t be a bad motto either.
One of the things that I have admired about India is the spiritualism of the people.
Discrimination is not liberal. Arguing against discrimination is not intolerance.
Anything that you throw comes back. All your actions are echoes.
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