Don’t Stop Believing

Is it possible that our current cultural moment leads to a misunderstanding of “belief”?

One of my favorite songs from the 80s is the Journey hit Don’t Stop Believing. Unless you grew up in an isolationist community you have probably heard this song somewhere — a grocery store, a sporting event, a graduation ceremony. Based on the popularity and reach of the song, it is likely that even if you did grow up in an isolationist community you have heard the song somewhere. It has become almost ubiquitous in global community.

And for good reason.

The chorus goes something like this: Don’t stop believing. Hold on to that feeling. Seemingly every person in the 1980s sang this chorus over and again. It played at every wedding reception, every tailgate, every high school graduation, every milestone event. And it is possible that everyone who ever sang this chorus has come to link the two ideas together: believing is essentially a feeling.

This perhaps explains why in the popular AppleTV series Ted Lasso, the titular character tells his soccer team, “I believe in belief.” He provides no definition of what belief is. He simply writes it on a yellow sign and hangs it askew above his office door. He slaps it as he goes into a match. Belief is ubiquitous — just like the Journey song. It represents an emotional state, a feeling, a mood. And, philosophically speaking, that is an impossible way to proceed in this life.

Belief is not a feeling. Belief is a mental attitude. It is one of three mental attitudes related to the idea of truth. Belief can only occur in relationship to truth. In fact, you cannot just believe. Belief requires a preposition. We have a fundamental need to believe IN “something” and that something is the object of your belief. If you subtract the “something” from our approach to life, you have no belief. Belief without the object of belief is not belief, but something else entirely.

So what does it mean to believe then? What is it that Ted Lasso is actually trying to get his team to believe? Is there an assumed truth proposition that he is understanding but not communicating? The answer is likely “yes.” And what of the band Journey? Should they rewrite the lyrics to their famous song to better reflect reality? Well — it may not be as beautiful, but it would be more philosophically accurate if they did. Don’t stop believing in truth. Hold on to that feeling that truth is out there for you to discover. Perhaps if they had written the song in this manner it would have been less commercially successful. However, I suspect that it would have helped people to better navigate life.

Navigating life well may not be Journey’s aim, but it is mine. I want parents to teach their kids to believe in truth. I want coaches to train their teams to believe in truth. I want one generation to teach the next generation to believe in truth. I want people to be true believers because I think life is better that way. I dont think the pursuit of right feelings is the best approach. I think it exposes us to all sorts of needless disorientation and anxiety. And that is the beauty of truth — truth rightly pursued, in a believing sort of way, orients us to true North. It helps us to live well. It helps us to live peacefully.