happy idiot wrote:
shopping for a better place wrote: Of course you're not sure because you are a happy idiot who doesn't understand English.
As the resident self-proclaimed-non-atheist-non-believer, I can assure you I don't go through the day "hoping" or "wishing" for things to happen. I expect them (i.e. have faith they will happen) or don't necessarily expect them "i.e. don't have faith they will happen). I grant you sometimes I have hopes and wishes. I wish I could run a 14 min 5k, and maybe I wish I were taller. But when for example I shake hands on a deal with somebody I trust in business, I have faith they will deliver. I don't "hope" or "wish" they would.
I trust this has been instructive.
I actually like how Peter Boghossian breaks down the argument logically:
Faith is 1)belief without evidence and, 2) pretending to know things you don't know.
To address point 1, he says, "If one had sufficient evidence to warrant belief in a particular claim, then on wouldn't believe the claim on the basis of faith. 'Faith' is the word one uses when one does not have enough evidence to justify holding a belief, but when one just goes ahead and believes anyway.
Another way to think about 'belief without evidence' is to think of an irrational leap over probabilities."
On point 2: "For example, someone who knows nothing about baking a cake can pretend to know how to bake a cake, and this is not an instance of faith. But if someone claims to know something on the basis of faith, they are pretending to know something they don't know. For example, using faith would be like someone giving advice about baking cookies who has never been in a kitchen."
So, replace faith with "pretending to now things I don't know."
Example #1: My faith is beneficial to me.
Pretending to know things I don't know is beneficial to me.
Example #2: I have faith in God.
I pretend to know things I don't know about God.
Example #3: I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
I don't pretend to know things I don't know enough to be a person who pretends to know things he doesn't know about the creation of the universe.
That's a pretty good explanation if you look at what faith really is.