(Written at 1am after waking up suddenly. Returned to sleep immediately after)
Regarding God's existence: Belief, Trust, Faith, and Hope.
All are expressions of a lack of information, but Faith and Hope are expressions of doubt, whereas Belief and Trust are expressions of confidence.
Belief and Trust are ultimately different levels of the same thing. Belief and Trust require knowledge, even if the knowledge is unproven or indirect. It is possible to have Belief or Trust in the existence of a faraway planet because, though we can't see it, we see its gravitational effect on the star it orbits. We can infer that other planets exist, since we, ourselves, live on a planet. Belief and Trust are not knowledge, but they depend on some kind of knowledge or evidence.
As different levels of the same thing, Trust seems to be the more confident expression.
Faith and hope require little to no knowledge or evidence. Instead, they require will. People have Faith and Hope in something because they want that thing to happen, not necessarily because they believe it will. I have Hope that greed and selfishness can be eradicated, but I don't truly "Believe" it can be.
Faith and Hope are two levels of the same expression of doubt, but Faith appears to be the stronger of the two, i.e.:
"I Hope that greed and selfishness can be eradicated, but I don't Believe it can be. Still, I have Faith that our new president can help reduce it somewhat, since I Trust what I have seen of him thus far."
It would seem that the levels go (Top to bottom):
1. Trust
2. Belief
3. Faith
4. Hope
Trust is the strongest confidence without actual, full-on, empirical knowledge.
Belief and Faith are very similar, and sometimes overlap. In common usage, they are often interchanged to express the same thought. Faith is the stronger of the doubt expressions, Belief is the weaker of the confidence expressions.
Hope is the weakest.
Hope is pure will. Faith is a belief in possibility. Belief and Trust express that the possibility has evidence of reality.
It should also be noted, that though Hope and Faith depend on will power and lack knowledge in their implementation(s), that doesn't automatically negate the possibility of what the Faith and Hope are being applied to.
This is not an argument either for or against God. Rather, it is a search for an objective definition of the four most common terms present within these arguments, from which more cogent arguments (for either side) may then be constructed.
Theists can argue that they have Trust and Belief in their views, and Atheists can do the same.
Thoughts?
Commentaires?
Osservazioni?
What a way to really explore these words and the ideas, concepts, and emotions that humans are trying to capture and exchange with these words. "You heighten the level of discourse."
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that this was written in a weird stream-of-consciousness. I have edited it a bit to make it presentable, but I haven't fully fleshed it out yet. I don't even know that it can be fleshed out, as it's pretty much a philosophical point of view. These words have denotations, but their overlapping meanings in common usage now require a philosophy in their applications.
But, it is a starting point. :)