The meaning of "faith" remains ambiguous and its role in people's lives varies significantly between individuals and communities.
Four slightly different concepts of faith :
1. Faith can be associated with trust
2. Faith is associated with keeping promises, pledging one's word, "keeping the faith", and loyalty.
3. "Taking things on faith" is on the lines of accepting assumptions or appearances without further questioning for the moment.
4. Faith is either belief that rejects the need for justification that could convince people who doubt, or a justification that is based on other justification.
Faith and culture - Faith can be seen as both personal knowledge and shared knowledge, shared knowledge. Religious beliefs, accepted on the basis of faith, are generally woven into the whole of a believer's perspective on life
Faith and subjectivity - Many believe that faith leads to belief that is subjective. Faith as a justification for subjective conclusions is not demonstrable in the way that evidence, testing, or reasoning
Faith and certainty - Faith attracts critical attention when it is held with total psychological conviction. Faith can bypass further justification and go straight to belief
Faith and doubt - Faith can be mild as well as fierce - and it can be moderated or even replaced by doubt. In some religious traditions, faith is sometimes described as an active struggle with doubt - a will to believe despite lack of objective evidence, and despite some much-debated problems such as the existence of evil.
Should humanism or atheism be described as a faith? Can theistic beliefs be considered knowledge because they are produced by a special cognitive faculty or “divine sense”? Does faith meet a psychological need?
The term “faith” is most frequently used to refer specifically to religious faith, but can also be used in a secular sense as a synonym for trust. Although most associated with belief in a God or gods, faith can be religious without being theistic, for example, in Buddhism. Alternatively, it can be seen as a commitment to a particular interpretation of experience and reality which is not necessarily religious at all, such as humanism. Logical positivism claims that statements of faith have no meaningful cognitive content, so it doesn’t make sense to speak of faith as a way of knowing. However, for many people faith is a key way in which they try to understand and explain the world.
The evidence on which faith is based on is often controversial. This is particularly the case in the example of scripture, which those within the religious group often see as infallible evidence, while those outside the religious group might be more circumspect. While critics argue that faith is irrational and incoherent, others would argue that faith should be seen as a way of going beyond reason rather than being purely irrational. Indeed, although faith is often contrasted with reason, many religions regard faith and reason as interdependent, for example, natural theology argues that it is only possible to access God through reason, and many religions regard reason as a God-given gift.
Some would argue that the criticism and controversy surrounding the evidence for faith claims is misplaced, arguing that faith is an act of trust and is an example of knowledge which is not evidence based. Indeed, in some traditions belief that is not based on evidence is seen as superior to belief that is based on evidence, the demand for concrete evidence being seen to signify a lack of faith. Given this controversy, teachers should provide the opportunity for a critical discussion of faith as a way of knowing. Its inclusion as a way of knowing should not be seen as an excuse for unthinking acceptance of knowledge claims in religion or other areas of knowledge.
from the IB 2015 Study Guide
Presents eighteen essays from philosophers and theologians in which they discuss their personal views and attitudes toward religion.
A biography of English naturalist Charles Darwin that provides an account of the personality behind evolutionary theory and the affect of his work on his personal life, such as his relationship with his religious wife.
A biography of twelfth-century Muslim scholar, philosopher, and physician, Averroes, describing his life, education, and legacy.
Briefly describes the beliefs of Muslims and eight of the special celebrations that are part of the Islamic faith.
Discusses the Koran's compilation and preservation and describes its teachings, covering such topics as Muhammad, the pillars of the Muslim faith, family values, women's rights, forbidden and permitted foods, legal matters, Heaven and Hell, jihad, the Koran's connections to the Bible and the Torah, and other related topics.
Features ten rules for a more meaningful life taken from the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophers including Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Epictetus, Epicurus, Pythagoras, and Aesop.
Contains essays in which Leszek KoĊakowski ponders twenty-three questions about good and evil, truth and beauty, faith, free will, and other issues from the perspectives of some of history's greatest philosophers, including Socrates, Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Explains the origins, development, beliefs, festivals, and ceremonies of various world faiths and where they are practiced, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions of Australian aborigines and Native Americans.
Explains how Western ideas of the Buddha have come to misrepresent his teachings and the traditional goals of Buddhist practice.
Explores the parallels between scientific thinking and belief in God, discussing what it means to believe in God in the modern age, the close relationship between scientific and theological method, divine action, and the metaphysical challenge and opportunity offered by the nature of mathematics.
Examines the role that twentieth-century findings in physics can play in learning about God, the Creation, and other religious topics.
Concise essays introduce fifty ideas from throughout history on philosophy, religion, politics, economics, science, and the arts.
Considers what the discovery of extraterrestrial life would mean for science, religion, and beliefs about mankind.
My faith helps me overcome such negative emotions and find my equilibrium.
Dalai Lama
Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.
Flannery O’Connor
To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
Benjamin Franklin
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Thomas Aquinas
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
Saint Augustine
Without risk there is no faith. Faith is precisely the contradiction between infinite passion of inwardness and objective uncertainty Soren Kierkegaard