Long time no see. I hope I hang around for longer than a couple of days this time, I gotta wait and see....

My personal view is that the difference between faith and belief is one primarily of tangibility... if there are reasons, evidence, logic, etc., to support a certain viewpoint, you can say that you believe in it. (I can believe, for instance, in laizze faire economics or in population control or socialism or what have you.... but I wouldn't have faith in it, per se.) If you choose to bypass all that and believe because you choose to, that is faith. That is to say, faith is a specific cause which gives rise to a specific variety of belief.

It's not just about matters of religion and spirituality... a mother can have faith that her son will be honest with her with no evidence to tell her that he will; a baby boomer can have faith that he will see social security money in ten years; I can have blind faith that my girlfriend will be loyal. (incidentally, that last one is true and it was one of the largest mistakes I made. I guess ya could say my biases towards faith have perhaps increased over time.) :-)

• I don't mean to butt in - Let me know if I am rude. - bible_believer3 - October 24, 2003 - 13:36 UTC
  • Don't worry about it - stormcrow - October 24, 2003 - 14:52 UTC
    • Thanks - bible_believer3 - October 24, 2003 - 15:14 UTC
      • Then it's not a definition of faith - stormcrow - October 24, 2003 - 15:41 UTC
        • Correct. Faith is not a definition. - bible_believer3 - October 24, 2003 - 16:13 UTC