Faith - Val

Faith is a combination of belief and trust in a person, idea, theory or ability. It is a confident conviction in something that remains unproven or lacks reliability. It can be seen as an emotional state of mind rather than being built from rational reasoning.
“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” - Voltaire

Many define faith as the replacement of a lack of knowledge and evidence, a sense of hope and self comfort when there is uncertainty. However faith is not always a ‘blind’ faith, it can come from a reasoned thinking. You may have faith in someone because you personally know from experience or intuition that he is responsible or trustworthy.
My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason - Norman Cousins

If you define faith as the optimistic substitute for a lack of evidence then logically this would mean that if evidence was to appear you would lose faith and/or it could not be defined as faith anymore but labeled ‘belief’ or ‘certainty’ instead? I think that if evidence was to appear than this would simply reinforce ones faith. If historians and scientists were able to somehow discover some evidence for a god or higher force then the pious would have a stronger and more stable faith as they have
satisfaction that what they believe and trust in is actually in existence.

However faith can also be a certainty even though science proves it otherwise. Such as adam and eve versus evolution or god’s seven day creation of the earth vs the big bang and evolution. These are Christian examples; mostly because chrisitianity or religion in general is very relevant to faith. When one says faith, the direct link most people make is to religion. But faith takes a range of meanings, from loyalty, to determination, to expectation.

I would define faith as a passionate intuition and a necessary optimism. Faith is necessary in the sense that it gives someone structure and support in times of pessimism and it makes someone more positive. Faith can be faith in yourself thus giving one self-esteem and confidence; it can also give one a moral guide in the sense of religion.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe - Saint Augustine
This quote is very relevant to the gain of knowledge with faith. Saint Augustine says that if you believe in something you may finally be able to prove it. It links to determination, faith might boost and give support to a scientist in proving his theory. If a scientist didn’t believe his theory could be proven than he would give up and maybe we would have much less knowledge in some areas.

However, faith can sometimes spin into extremes; where your trust has become an unwavering devotion. Extreme faith can lead to the subconscious imagining that there is evidence for your faith when you would otherwise not see it. I mean that if your belief in something is too strong you may ‘choose’ to see only the positive, this links to sense perception where we perceive only what we want to perceive. People who have strong faith in the existence of ghosts may actually see one. Sometimes making the prediction will bring this into life. In this sense, faith can bring false knowledge.

Furthermore, it could lead to stubbornness and narrow-mindedness. People might have so much faith in something that they all together reject any other possibilities, however reasonable that possibility may be.
It was Friedrich Nietzsche who said “Faith is not wanting to know what is true.”