On 4/25/2011 16:18, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Faith is less justified than belief, perhaps?  Similar concepts, but at
> different places along the scale.

Well, to my reading, "belief" being present means I think it's true. It 
doesn't matter whether I'm justified, or whether it's actually true. If I 
believe Elvis is alive, it doesn't matter whether he is or whether you've 
showed me the funeral. That doesn't affect whether or not I believe it. 
(Showing me the funeral of course may affect whether I continue to believe it.)

If I believe something and I haven't changed my mind, then I still believe 
it. I don't stop believing I was right just because I found out I'm 
*actually* right.

Faith, in my vocabulary, may be a religious term meaning "belief without 
evidence or in spite of contradictory evidence." Or it might just mean 
"confidence."   I have faith Fred will do the right thing. I have confidence 
Fred will do the right thing.  But "faith" tends to mean something even 
stronger than confidence, in my vocabulary.

"Knowledge" is when you believe something and you have evidence and you're 
not mistaken. Or, as the philosophers put it, "justified true belief."

Tell me what word you'd use to mean what I mean by belief.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Coding without comments is like
    driving without turn signals."

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