What Exactly Is Faith?

From Auburn University philosophy professor Roderick T. Long's post "Defensor Fidei":

Secularists often criticise the notion of “faith,” which they take to mean belief without evidence, or at least belief without sufficient evidence. I think this is a mistake. I do not mean to deny that many doctrines put forward as articles of faith are in fact propounded without sufficient evidence. All that I deny is that their being so is part of the meaning of the word “faith,” either in ordinary language or in theology. Note that I am not saying that being based on evidence is part of the meaning of “faith,” but only that not being based on evidence is not part of the meaning of “faith.” Faith can either be well-grounded in evidence, or not. It is not the purpose of this post to affirm (or for that matter to deny) that any particular article of faith is true, or reasonable, or justified by evidence. I’m in formal rather than material mode here....

 

It seems to me that what the word means in ordinary language is not belief that goes beyond the evidence, but rather belief that goes beyond one’s personal experience. To someone of skeptical tendencies these might of course come to the same thing, but for most of us they do not. My belief that Stonehenge exists is not based on personal experience (nor on demonstrative deduction therefrom), but surely I have, by all but the sternest skeptical standards, sufficient evidence for it.

 

Long notes that "the Greek word pistis translated as 'faith' might more helpfully be translated as 'trust,' or 'confidence,' which better captures the implication that one is prepared to rely on the object of one’s faith." So, he writes, 

Suppose I say that I have faith/trust that Bonzo has turned off the stove. I wouldn’t speak of faith if I had actually seen Bonzo turn off the stove. But that doesn’t mean that my reliance on Bonzo’s having done so is somehow blind or irrational. If Bonzo tells me that he did turn off the stove, and if in my experience he has always shown himself to be reliable and truthful, then it seems I have sufficient evidence – based on experience – that he has turned off the stove, even if I didn’t actually experience his turning off the stove....

In this sense, then – and contrary to what is often asserted – faith plays a central role in the empirical sciences. I am not talking about “faith in the senses” or “faith in reason” or any such rot; I am talking about the widespread practice of relying on the results of other scientists without testing them oneself. After all, scientific inquiry is a cooperative enterprise; a scientist cannot personally test for herself all the theories and principles on which one relies. (Otherwise she wouldn’t even be able to use a thermometer!) Hence reliance on testimony is a pervasive feature of the scientific enterprise.

It's a brief and well-written post, and I urge you to read the whole thing because he answers the questions that are now occurring to you. Long is not trying to affirm religious faith; rather he's trying to look at such belief from the point of view of the believer, who thinks he has evidence. The best response to that person is not to dismiss him for accepting beliefs without evidence but rather to demonstrate that his evidence doesn't do the work he thinks it does.

Why does this matter? If we want communicate well, we must be sensitive to how other people use words. Otherwise we might as well be speaking a different language.