opinions-philosophy-faith

Here's a potential definition of the word "faith":

Faith is treating a proposition as if you are more sure about it than you have license to be.

Unpacking that a little: Sometimes you have evidence for propositions, which give you license to be more certain about their truth. But you always have to make some guesses, that is, assumptions without evidence; assertions that you have no license to be certain about.

A perfectly rational person with no faith will make guesses and yet recognize them as guesses, that is, they will assign little certainty to a guess. When reasoning, they will remain aware that all conclusions derived from the guesses are themselves uncertain. When acting, they will not act as if they would if they had a lot of confidence in their guess.

By contrast, a person who has a lot of faith in some things will treat some of their guesses as if they were near-certainties. This un-licensed certainty will be spread to conclusions based on the guess, and the person's actions will reflect their confidence in the guess.

To show how this factors into the most common application of the word, religion: a person without faith could still believe that the truth of some religion is possible, and could look at the world through the lens of that religion, and could follow that religion's commandments in most circumstances. But they would be aware that their belief in the truth of the religion is a guess for which they do not have extremely strong evidence (for the sake of argument, I am here assuming that there is no religion for which there is "extremely strong evidence"). They might not make much of an effort to convert others to the religion, because they know that they do not have much evidence to present. They would not find other people's disbelief surprising or suspicious. If the religion told them to do something that they otherwise considered outrageous (such as killing their own child), they probably would not do it, because they would have a significant doubt in the truth of the religion.

By contrast, a person with a lot of faith in the truth of their religion would act as if its truth were not a guess, but rather a near-certainty. They might try to convert other people, and be surprised when others disbelief, attributing this to stupidity or bad moral character or the intervention of an evil power (because they think and act as if their guess that the religion was true was not a guess, as if it were as certain as if it had been supported by extremely strong evidence). They might follow their religion's commandments even at great personal cost, and even when they are commanded to do something that they would otherwise consider outrageous, because they assign little weight to the possibility that the religion is false.

Compare to the Catholic Encyclopaedia's definition.

Compare to the Catholic Encyclopaedia's definition: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05752c.htm#section6