How Can We Believe In Something We Cannot See?

Is It Naive to Believe in What We Can’t See?

Exploring the spiritual dimension in a world ruled by the visible can be challenging.

Concepts like the soul, Heaven, spiritual realms, or non-physical beings can often sound abstract, mystical, and, let’s be honest, a bit far-fetched. In a world that worships hard facts and tangible evidence, it’s hard to ignore the gap between the language of the believer and the secular worldview. How can anyone build a life around something they can’t see? Isn’t that just wishful thinking?

Hold on a second.

Before we go any further, try this short experiment: Touch your foot. Great. It’s proof that it’s there. Now touch your screen. This proves it’s also real.

Now try touching the rays of light around you. Didn’t work? What does that mean?

Absolutely nothing.

No one doubts the existence of light, even if it can’t be grasped by our fingers. The same goes for radio waves, cellular signals, X-rays, and infrared light. These invisible forces fill our world, even though we can’t see or touch them. We know they’re real because we can perceive their effects through the right instruments, like a radio, phone, or X-ray machine.

For most of human history, anyone who claimed that “there’s something in the air around us” would have been laughed at. In fact, electromagnetic radiation was first observed only in 1879, and even then, most people ignored it.

So yes, it’s absolutely possible to believe in something you can’t see.

When Unseen Truth Saves Lives

We all know that reality is full of things we don’t see or feel. To assume that anything we can’t physically detect doesn’t exist is simply false.

Take bacteria, for example. They weren’t discovered until about 350 years ago, when Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek saw them through a microscope he built himself. But even after their discovery, the medical world didn’t believe bacteria had any connection to human disease for nearly 200 years.

Only in 1905 did German physician Robert Koch prove that bacteria cause illnesses, launching the field of microbiology. Until then, hygiene practices were minimal at best. But that one discovery revolutionized healthcare and dramatically extended the average human lifespan.

There’s also the tragic yet enlightening story of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, a Jewish obstetrician in 19th-century Austria-Hungary. He noticed that women treated by medical students during childbirth had a much higher death rate than those treated by midwives. Though no one yet knew about germs, he theorized that the students were carrying dangerous “particles” from cadavers they dissected. He mandated that all staff disinfect their hands before deliveries, and maternal death rates plummeted.

Today, we wonder: “How could they operate on cadavers and then treat patients without washing up?” But when people don’t recognize the reality of the unseen, the consequences can be deadly.

Semmelweis’s peers weren’t malicious. They were simply limited by their perception of reality. But this story reminds us that just because something isn’t part of our sensory awareness doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Rejecting something outright just because we can’t sense it can lead us to miss things that matter a lot, sometimes with serious consequences.

Seeing Isn’t Always Believing

Some people can detect things others can’t. A Bedouin tracker can read footprints in the sand that others overlook. Dogs can hear frequencies humans never will. But even the most advanced senses are limited.

We can’t see or hear God. But that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize His presence through what He reveals: the intricacy of the world He created, the power of moral law, and the brilliance of Torah. These are channels through which the Infinite becomes perceptible.

On the other hand, not everything we see is necessarily real. Consider optical illusions: on a hot day, a road may shimmer as though it’s steaming, even though it’s not. Or we think someone called our name, only to realize it was our imagination. So how can we be sure our senses show us the full truth?

How Can We Perceive What Is Beyond Us?

Philosopher Immanuel Kant grappled with this question. He concluded that reality has many layers—but we can only access a narrow slice. Like a radio that picks up one frequency at a time, our senses are tuned to specific wavelengths. We’re blind to much of what exists.

Kant explained that what we experience through our senses isn’t reality itself. It’s just reality as it appears to us through our senses and mind. He called the ultimate reality—the way things exist independently of us—the “thing-in-itself.” We can never fully know the “thing-in-itself,” because our senses and thoughts always filter and shape what we perceive. For example, we don’t see the world in ultraviolet or hear sounds beyond a certain range, even though those things exist. We only get a limited picture of reality.

So, the “thing-in-itself” is reality as it truly is, beyond what our senses and minds can ever capture.

Judaism agrees. God cannot be fully grasped with the human mind. As the Zohar says, “No thought can grasp Him at all.”

Yet, even though we cannot grasp God, we can still connect with Him by observing the impact and outcome of His actions, such as a breathtaking sunset, the marvels of the human body, and the intricacy of life. As King David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim His handiwork” (Tehillim 19:2). The world itself testifies to its Creator.

The Zohar adds that although we cannot perceive God with the mind, “He is grasped through the desire of the heart.”

And once, just once in history, human beings did directly experience the Divine. More than 3,300 years ago, at Mount Sinai. That moment, when the Torah was given, was a singular event of cosmic magnitude. The Torah describes it as seeing sounds and hearing visions, an experience beyond any sensory or intellectual capacity.

Since then, we no longer sense the Infinite in the same way. But God gave us a way to stay connected, namely Torah and mitzvot (Divine commandments). The Sages described the Torah as “black fire on white fire.” It’s not just ink on parchment, but a spiritual code that only the soul can decode.

Your Soul Is the Receiver

The soul is not just another emotion or idea. It’s the highest part of our being, beyond senses, instincts, or intellect. Only the soul can absorb the full message embedded in the Torah.

To access it, we need to train ourselves through Torah study, prayer, mitzvah observance, and quiet reflection. When fully activated, the soul can reach extraordinary levels—what Judaism calls Divine inspiration or even prophecy. While only a few reach those spiritual heights, the potential exists within us all.

We may not feel God with our physical senses. But that doesn’t mean He isn’t there.

Don’t believe it?

Try reaching out and grabbing a beam of light.