From: Aaron Davidson (ajd@ualberta.ca)
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 19:03:23 MDT
>I have noticed that many people on this list engage in "religion
>bashing". Most of the accusations against religion on this list are
>unfounded or unfair. For example, ridiculing "faith" as belief in
>something regardless of proof purposely ignores the meaning most people
>use for the word.
What other meaning of the word faith is there?
I have never heard anyone properly use the word faith in any other way --
religious or not.
Science has faith at its foundations as well. Science puts faith in a few
fundamental assumptions -- universality, inductive proofs, etc...
The difference between a science and a religion is that science does
everything it can possibly do to minimize the amount of faith needed.
Religions are generally based on faith in excess.
---- http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=faith 1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony. 2. The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another, on the ground of the manifest truth of what he utters; firm and earnest belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to important moral truth. 4. That which is believed on any subject, whether in science, politics, or religion; especially (Theol.), a system of religious belief of any kind; as, the Jewish or Mohammedan faith; and especially, the system of truth taught by Christ; as, the Christian faith; also, the creed or belief of a Christian society or church. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Aaron Davidson <ajd@ualberta.ca> http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~davidson/ | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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