"But Charlie, Charlie, how can we ever really know anything? Charlie, what or who is God?"

Edgar Bergen’s dialogue with Charlie McCarthy, particularly the passage “But Charlie, Charlie, how can we ever really know anything? Charlie, what or who is God?” draws readers into the heart of philosophical and existential uncertainty. The question about the possibility of truly knowing anything gestures toward the great debates of epistemology, the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It asks whether humans, amid their limitations, senses, biases, and tools for understanding, can ever move beyond doubt into certainty. This echoes the skepticism of philosophers such as Descartes, who questioned whether anything could be known with absolute confidence. Bergen’s ventriloquized musings become a microcosm of the human struggle: we crave assurance and meaning, yet find ourselves awash in ambiguity.

By following this existential uncertainty with “Charlie, what or who is God?” the conversation immediately transitions from epistemology to theology. This is not a request for a factual definition, but a yearning for understanding what constitutes the ultimate reality, purpose, or intentionality behind existence. “God” becomes a representation of the ineffable, the absolute, something that could provide answers to the fundamental questions about life, morality, and the cosmos. Yet even the form of the question shows the slipperiness of language and concept, the distinction between “what” and “who” captures both the attempt to define God as a being or as a principle, or perhaps something beyond categories altogether.

Bergen’s famous comedic characters thus offer more than entertainment: they facilitate an encounter with profound uncertainty. Through the childlike curiosity and vulnerability voiced by Charlie McCarthy, Bergen invites us to recognize our shared bewilderment. The questions he poses are not signs of ignorance, but marks of authenticity, reflecting the human condition. We grapple with limits to knowledge, the vastness of the unknown, and the infinite interpretations of deity. These uncertainties may not be fully resolved, but voicing them brings us closer to wisdom and humility.