Posted by Amanda on January 04, 1997 at 16:11:19:
In Reply to: Definition of faith? posted by Stephen Charchuk on January 03, 1997 at 23:20:25:
: I've been having an involved discussion on a BBS about the concept of faith. In all of the dictionaries that I've ever read it basically says that faith is the unquestioning belief in something, usually a religion. The problem is that many on this BBS say that it isn't unquestioned. What do any of you think faith is if not unquestioned belief?
My opinion is that faith is defined as complete belief and trust in something whether there is evidence or not isn't really important. Obviously though it doesn't always go unquestioned or unchanged or the statements "keep the faith" and "I'm losing faith in ..." wouldn't be around. I think faith can perhaps be compared with your belief system. My belief system is similar to that of science - no beliefs are permenent, all are based on evidence and all are subject to change - same goes for my faith in things. When Carlos stated in a posting "keep the faith" I think he refered to the skeptic type faith. Faith in God is probably the one example of the most common held faith around. Regardless of all this though - I try not to use the word much at all, it has to much of a connection with religion now and the original definition has no doubt been lost to that same manipulative power that's played with the rest of them. I suppose I see "belief" and "faith" as meaning the same thing in my case but perhaps I should use "faith" when dealing with personal subjects that require feeling to be taken into account. Like faith in myself and my loved ones. Maybe there's an added bit of feeling when it's used that you have some sort of hope in that thing you place your faith in - you don't think it will let you down whether it's a theory or a person - it can apply to all. Maybe the desire you have that it won't be found false by evidence is part of the meaning. Whenever I use such words where the definitions are cloudy - I try to research when it first was used and in what pretext and then the various ways it's been used since. When I write about it - I take the time to explain which defintion I'm using and usually it's the original one before the manipulation began - it's a pain in the ass to have to do that all the time but it saves a lot of confusion and misinterpretion by the reader.