Philosophical Question: Is there a different between "Belief" and "Faith"?

[Die Hard]

Is there a difference? Please define each and feel free to discuss. There's no agenda here... I'm just working on my own definition and understanding and would appreciate input from others of perhaps things I haven't considered. Thanks in advance.

[twa]

faith is usually describing a action or state of mind,whereas belief is generally like a doctrine or conclusion drawn

you can have a belief (draw a conclusion) in or about something w/o exercising faith

Hebrews 11:1

King James Version (KJV)

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

add

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Voltaire

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

Thomas Aquinas

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

Blaise Pascal

one last one to demonstrate belief

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/belief.html#bzdo5LsyG83FwT84.99

[Die Hard]

So do you believe in extraterrestrial life.... or do you have faith in it?

[twa]

So do you believe in extraterrestrial life.... or do you have faith in it?

I would say you can believe in the possibility, but to assume it exists is a act of faith imo

what is it based on

[Die Hard]

So do you believe in extraterrestrial life.... or do you have faith in it?

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 01:28 AM ----------

I would say you can believe in the possibility, but to assume it exists is a act of faith imo

on

Why can you not believe something exists... but only assume it? You can't assume possibilities?

[Califan007 The Constipated]

twa touched on what I was going to say...you can have a set of beliefs, but you can't have a set of faiths. Faith is when you act on your beliefs.

[DCsportsfan53]

I think a big difference for me is if it's a belief you're acknowledging the possibility that you're wrong. To have faith in something is to believe without a smidgen of doubt.

[Thinking Skins]

Nah I don't differentiate between the two. Generally I have faith in something because I believe in it or that its true.

But neither should get in the way of true provable facts.

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 05:36 AM ----------

I think a big difference for me is if it's a belief you're acknowledging the possibility that you're wrong. To have faith in something is to believe without a smidgen of doubt.

So I wonder then how faith deals with being wrong.

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 05:37 AM ----------

I think a big difference for me is if it's a belief you're acknowledging the possibility that you're wrong. To have faith in something is to believe without a smidgen of doubt.

So I wonder then how faith deals with being wrong.

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 05:38 AM ----------

I think a big difference for me is if it's a belief you're acknowledging the possibility that you're wrong. To have faith in something is to believe without a smidgen of doubt.

So I wonder then how faith deals with being wrong.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Yes

I am working from my own Christian perspective here, so when I hear these it is from that referrence.

Belief is a cognitive assertion to a perceived fact.

Faith, in so far as Christian theology is concerned isn't so much as cognitive assertion to that which unproveable (as faith is most times described). Instead when we as Christians talk about faith, it what we're saying is not that we believe in God/Jesus even though we cannot see God, but instead that we are putting our trust into what we're hoping for, and acting upon what we cannot see. As such to put our faith in Jesus we are not just believing that he exists, but that we are hoping for the promises we have been given through calling upon him to save us, and us living as his disciples.

IMO too much of an effort has been made in recent decades to bridge the gap between belief and faith, efforts that I believe have contributed in no small manner to the rise in nominal Christianity.

[Burgold]

I think others before are on the right track. There is a difference in degree, but the two are linked.

[twa]

Why can you not believe something exists... but only assume it? You can't assume possibilities?

if you only class it as a possibility,you then do not believe it exists....no faith and no belief

[Die Hard]

if you only class it as a possibility,you then do not believe it exists....no faith and no belief

So by your definition.... faith is absolute certainty.. and belief is only relative certainty?

Is there no variance in faith? Can one have weak faith? Mild faith? Passing faith?

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 08:34 AM ----------

And would people mind contributing examples for belief and faith other than God?

What else do you have absolute faith in?

[alexey]

To me faith seems like an interconnected system of beliefs.

For belief, maybe something like "Belief is an assertion of a concept."

I think there is a lot of confusion about the word "belief". For example, some people may say that you need to believe in gravity in order to get out of bed in the morning. I disagree with that. I think that's like saying you need to believe that fire causes tissue damage in order to yank your hand our of it. You just do it because you have very simple and effective tools to deal with reality. I think belief has to be a higher level construct.

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 09:01 AM ----------

And would people mind contributing examples for belief and faith other than God?

What else do you have absolute faith in?

Is that possible? Without religion or God, can we just call them thoughts, reasons, ideas, concepts, etc?

What is the difference between "I think" and "I believe"? It seems that the latter adds an emphatic assertion, but that's about it.

[Thiebear]

as a more scientific person:

I've had lots of beliefs shattered due to people on here much smarter than myself.

I have faith in the things pretty much proven, Nature, math, 2+2.

I'm not unshakeable in any of it though really, we are so new to the scene of existence it would be rediculous to say we "Know" everything.

Every thousand year we laugh at what we though we knew... (most things).

My most absolute faith is we seem to come together during the hardest times. And apart during the easiest.

[CrypticVillain]

I am a Christian, but others have already answered regarding that so I ask this.

You ask somebody to do something important to you and you end it with:

I have faith in you.

or

I believe in you.

I guess having faith in them means that you hope that they get the job done, where as believing in them means you know they will get it done. :whoknows:

[HOF44]

To me a belief has always been when you look at all the evidence available and it points to a logical answer, that is a belief. Faith is the belief in something without the requirement of logical evidence or any way to substantiate the belief.

[alexey]

To me a belief has always been when you look at all the evidence available and it points to a logical answer, that is a belief.

I have faith in the things pretty much proven, Nature, math, 2+2.

I think it is important to use different words for a "belief" in 2+2=4 and a belief that killing a goat can bring good harvest.

This is why I think it is not appropriate to use the word "belief" to describe subjective acceptance of grounded knowledge.

[twa]

So by your definition.... faith is absolute certainty.. and belief is only relative certainty?

Is there no variance in faith? Can one have weak faith? Mild faith? Passing faith?

---------- Post added July-27th-2012 at 08:34 AM ----------

And would people mind contributing examples for belief and faith other than God?

What else do you have absolute faith in?

I have absolute faith in nothing,so naturally I believe in degrees of faith

to use your extraterrestrial example

I can accept the concept of other life w/o believing it exists

or I can deduce it does from evidence and make it my belief

or I can go beyond that to faith

simply levels of certaintude;) ..... faith in extraterrestrial life would enable you to risk a one way space flight,whereas a belief is more open to revision

[drtdrums]

They are not the same thing. Faith is not just a greater degree of belief.

A belief is acceptance of a truth claim -- it is as simple as that. You can believe all manner of truth claims without ever getting down to where the rubber meets the road.

Faith is the action/state caused by whole-hearted acceptance of the truth claim. In some cases, faith is as easy as breathing (when there is no consequence to being wrong, or when a truth claim is so tested that acting counter to that truth claim would be nearly impossible). In other cases, it is flying on the trapeze with no net.

A very simple example: I believe there is a Cairo in Egypt; If I get on a plane to fly there, I am exhibiting faith in that truth claim.

________________

True, unreserved belief compels faith (read: action).

[alexey]

A belief is acceptance of a truth claim -- it is as simple as that. You can believe all manner of truth claims without ever getting down to where the rubber meets the road.

I have a problem with this, and it looks like I'm not the only one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief#Belief_as_a_psychological_theory

(Philosopher Lynne Rudder Baker has outlined four main contemporary approaches to belief in her controversial book Saving Belief)

1) Our common-sense understanding of belief is correct

...

2) Our common-sense understanding of belief may not be entirely correct, but it is close enough to make some useful predictions

...

3) Our common-sense understanding of belief is entirely wrong and will be completely superseded by a radically different theory that will have no use for the concept of belief as we know it - Known as eliminativism, this view, (most notably proposed by Paul and Patricia Churchland), argues that the concept of belief is like obsolete theories of times past such as the four humours theory of medicine, or the phlogiston theory of combustion. In these cases science hasn't provided us with a more detailed account of these theories, but completely rejected them as valid scientific concepts to be replaced by entirely different accounts. The Churchlands argue that our common-sense concept of belief is similar in that as we discover more about neuroscience and the brain, the inevitable conclusion will be to reject the belief hypothesis in its entirety.

4) Our common-sense understanding of belief is entirely wrong; however, treating people, animals, and even computers as if they had beliefs is often a successful strategy - The major proponents of this view, Daniel Dennett and Lynne Rudder Baker, are both eliminativists in that they believe that beliefs are not a scientifically valid concept, but they don't go as far as rejecting the concept of belief as a predictive device. Dennett gives the example of playing a computer at chess. While few people would agree that the computer held beliefs, treating the computer as if it did (e.g. that the computer believes that taking the opposition's queen will give it a considerable advantage) is likely to be a successful and predictive strategy. In this understanding of belief, named by Dennett the intentional stance, belief-based explanations of mind and behaviour are at a different level of explanation and are not reducible to those based on fundamental neuroscience, although both may be explanatory at their own level.

I'm thinking along the lines of 3) and 4).

[twa]

A very simple example: I believe there is a Cairo in Egypt; If I get on a plane to fly there, I am exhibiting faith in that truth claim.

________________

True, unreserved belief compels faith (read: action).

Why would believing Egypt would be there not be simply a belief?

[alexey]

Why would believing Egypt would be there not be simply a belief?

Because as we learned from the Wikipedia article the word "belief" is nonsensical

[twa]

Because as we learned from the Wikipedia article the word "belief" is nonsensical

and faith moreso?

[alexey]

and faith moreso?

Supposedly (per eliminativism) if we come up with appropriate terminology to describe various mind states, then the word belief will go away and the word faith will end up pointing at the concept of religion.

In other words, from that perspective the word "faith" is nonsensical as a description of a state of mind, but it does make sense as a synonym of the word "religion".

[Renegade7]

I feel there is a difference in "believing" there was historically a Jesus Christ versus having "faith" he's up in heaven watching over us, if that makes any sense at all...