Current affairs

[LMNO]

P3nt, I think your use of 'belief' is closer to what I would call 'faith'; asserting without evidence.

[The Commander]

P3nt, I think your use of 'belief' is closer to what I would call 'faith'; asserting without evidence.

I think faith is probably a bit closer to how he is defining belief, but even Faith can be informed by reason.  For instance...if my experience following a certain persons advice has been that I agree with them and their judgements 99% of the time, and i have always benefited from that advice, I might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the 1% of the time where I have my doubts or disagreements on their advice.  I will still look for facts to back up their assertion, and I will check to make sure their advice does not run counter to any deeply held morals that I might have, but I am more likely to have faith in their judgement and be willing to follow their advice, at least up to the point that I deduce the decision has in fact been proved to be the wrong choice.

[LMNO]

Deciding on uncertain factors using priors isn't faith, it's calculating probabilities using previous information.


Faith is deciding on uncertain factors using arbitrary and uninformed statements.

[Laughin Jude]

I draw a distinction between "confidence" and "faith."

Confidence - "I have confidence that X is true based on the following evidence." This is the realm of science.

Faith - "I have faith that X is true because I just do, even though there's no evidence for my belief." This is the realm of religion.

The moment you have a reason to believe something outside of blind guesswork, you're no longer dealing with faith.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's semantics but let me explain where I'm coming from. A belief is bullshit in my view. Any belief. All beliefs. All just a bunch of shit. You come to me waving your favourite belief and see how long you can stand me laughing in your face cos I can go all day. Laying down your life for a cause is doing it for a reason. Reason is the opposite of belief. MLK Never said he believed all men were equal - that was the reason he did what he did. He happened to believe in god, too but fuck it, I'll let that slip he was a generally good guy

I guess we differ in that I see reason as informing belief.  I don't see tham as the antithises of each other.  Belief without reason is superstition. Belief with reason is wisdom.

And neither one does you any fucking good.  I have belief with UNREASON.  I am a FUCKING IDIOT.  It WORKS!

[The Commander]

So I am sensing there are a whole lot of definitions being thrown around and no one is agreeing on any of them.  Not neccessarily a bad thing, just makes it difficult to discuss some concepts and ideas.

Faith
Evidence
Belief
Religion
Reason
Confidence
Falafel

Wait...that last one is just cause I am hungry.