Thats not faith. You gotta larn to use de dicksheenary sometime! Main Entry: 1faith Pronunciation: 'fAth Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural faiths /'fAths, sometimes 'fA[th]z/ Etymology: Middle English feith, from Anglo-French feid, fei, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust -- more at BIDE 1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions 2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust 3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>
Not unless your belief in them includes loyalty, fidelity and trust, not to mention utter conviction.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What sort of evidence would you require of God? Anyway, don't atheists lack a belief in God and embrace theism since they have no concept or whatever the au courant definition is?
Two different principles here: Loyalty and belief. You could say that you believe in unicorns, but to say they have your loyalty is something else altogether. There can be no loyalty to something unless you believe in it. In its religious meaning, the word faith tends to refer to BOTH belief and loyalty...both principles joined together like siamese twins.
Utter conviction is just an extreme belief. Still not an article of knowledge attained, but merely an opinion chosen.
Then I don't understand why you pointed out the definition of faith to Q's example as a way of saying it's wrong. There's no mention of reasoning in the definition or his example.
Yeah, in your last post to me. Should have defined what you meant by "god" right at the start no? You originally were telling me that atheism is a belief that there is "no god", not "the god of the arabs" etc. However, I do not actively believe that mermaids don't exist. I do not actively believe that mermaids do exist. I understand the concept but I lack a belief either way. They might, they might not.. So really at the end of the day it doesn't matter.
If you understand the concept you cannot claim a lack of belief. A lack of belief implies the nonexistence of a tenet. i.e. I have a lack of belief in pink elephants. WTF? belief:any cognitive content held as true I have a lack of cognitive content in pink elephants?
But I just did, so clearly I can. Whether you think it stands up under scrutiny is a different matter altogether. However, what would you call a lack of belief for or against? (As explained with my 'belief' or lack thereof concerning mermaids). I don't know if they do or do not exist and frankly I don't really care. Is that a belief?
Do you have a cognitive content on mermaids? Do you believe they don't exist or is there a possibility that they do?