Faith Vs. Belief

[Kuroikaze]

I have had a lot of christians throw this "problem" up at me recently so I decided to write an article about it, thought I'd post it here and see what every thinks. Anyway enjoy.

 

 

It has been four years since I abandoned my faith in the Christian religion. I have had many conversations with Christians since that time, and in those many conversations one issue that has come up over and over is the issue of faith, and in particular why I don’t have any in God. Now, since I am not an atheist, I can only assume that the Christians are asking why I don’t have faith in their god, but this is really beside the point.

 

Faith, says the Christian, is something that all people have in various forms. For instance, says the Christian, if you are sick and you go to the doctor; then you have faith that the doctor will cure you, or at least not make things worse than they were. You have faith that he knows what he is doing. Or for another example, when the light turns green at a stop light, you cross the intersection, having faith that the cars on the intersecting street will stop and allow you to cross safely. So, the Christian submits, if you have faith in all of these other things, why is it you can’t believe in God.

 

I have to admit, that on the surface this really seems to be a problem. I truly have no way of knowing for sure that the doctor I go to isn’t a quack, or that the person in the other car isn’t drunk, or just an idiot. However, I believe that, while on the surface this may seem like a problem, once you did down a bit it has to do with a simple misunderstanding of the meaning of the two words, belief and faith. Not to get into a mud slinging contest, but Christian apologists have a habit of redefining words to suit meanings that are often far from the standard dictionary meaning, or at the very least using a dictionary meaning that is very seldom used. This can lead to much confusion when reading works of Christian apology, because the misuse of words can be used to hide contradictions and errors of logic. Such an issue is never more apparent than with the words belief and faith, mostly because even the general populace uses them interchangeably, and they are generally treated as synonyms, when in fact they have subtly different meanings.

 

Let’s take a look and the dictionary definitions of the two words:

 

Belief: Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.

 

Faith: Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

 

Now right off you should notice that the first word of the definition of faith is the word belief, however it is not the only word in the definition so we can discern right off that faith is a particular kind of belief. Now if faith is a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence then the natural assumption is that beliefs are usually have a basis in logical proof and material evidence.

 

Now we can get somewhere, you see the problem with this argument is, just as I said, one of semantics. When a Christian claims that believing in the Christian god is the same as believing a doctor is capable of being a doctor, then they are mistaking the meanings of faith and belief. The reason is that I don’t have faith that the doctor can heal me. While it’s true that I don’t have irrevocable proof that the doctor is good, it would also be wrong to say that I have no proof of any kind. Doctors must go through rigorous school and training to treat me. Before the doctor will be allowed to treat patients on his own he must go through four years of college in pre-med classes, four years of medical school, possibly another year or two in a specialization school, and finally several years of internship. So for the doctor to treat me he must have at least twelve years of training. Now is it possible that a few people slip though this screening process? Of course it is, but that is not the point. The point is that when I put trust in a doctor it is not without any reason, but because I know what he went though to get there. Am I taking a chance when I go to a doctor? Of course I am, but there is at least some material evidence, and logic (granted the logic is inductive and not deductive) that the doctor knows what he is doing.

 

In the same way, when I drive my car across the intersection and believe the cars will stop, I do trusting not blindly, but in the observable fact that when the light turns red for the other cars they generally stop, and even so I will usually check just to make sure, because people in my town run red lights quite often.

 

No matter what examples you could come up with, I believe (ha, there’s that word) that it could be shown that none of us operate on faith, by the dictionary definition. Instead we operate on beliefs that are well founded on observable evidence and some form of deductive or inductive reasoning. I will grant that more often our daily choices are made based on inductive reasoning (which is not absolute) than deductive, but that is still a long way from having no evidence whatsoever.

 

The Christian version of god on the other hand is not only unobservable, but is often painted, by Christians themselves, in logically contradicting terms. Until the Christian can present a reason to believe in their version of god, then there will forever be a large difference between faith in god, and the belief we have in everything else.

 

Furthermore, I have never seen any evidence that faith is even a useful concept. To believe in something without any proof at all is, in my opinion, an absurd concept, and moreover can lead to narrow-minded thinking and all sorts of atrocities.

 

It is funny to note, that many Christians with whom I debate, lament my antagonistic approach to the concept of faith. Most of them simply can’t understand why I dislike the concept so much. I doubt very much if these people even really understand what faith is, though they talk about it incessantly. Faith, by definition, leads to a limitation of ones ability to think critically. This world needs more people who look at the word around them critically, and for that to happen they must take of the rose colored lenses of faith and see with eyes unclouded.

 

Lastly, let me note, that I have nothing against religion, just any religion that asks us to stop thinking for ourselves.

 

 

 

well let me know what you guys think. If you see any grammer problems that need correcting send me a PM, because I may decide to try to publish it some places, and I want it to look nice.

[Interested Atheist]

Excellent post! You took a potential stumbling block and smoothed it out nicely. Thanks, Kuroikaze!