Belief, Faith and Certainty

[Obatunji McKnight]

Whats the difference between beliefs, faith and certainties?

[Tamara Evans]

Found this on the internet...

 

"Beliefs are ideas. They are concepts. They give us a picture of reality that others can agree with or disagree with. Beliefs are thoughts that can be put into words and these words can be communicated to others. Beliefs, however, are not absolute truths. They are opinions about reality, not reality itself. In the realm of belief we can have our own opinions, others can have their opinions, and we can agree or disagree, remembering that the truth of our beliefs is relative.

 

Faith, in a spiritual sense, does not have to do with relative truths but with absolute truths - truths that exist for all time. Faith relates us to an unvarying, underlying reality that we share in - one that we assume exists whether we believe in it or not. Unlike beliefs which are of the mind, faith is not just of the mind but of the heart as well.

Faith combines our heart's wish and our mind's belief into an inner affirmation that the possible is real

Faith comes into play when we tell ourselves that our concepts are true - when we hold them to be true even though we don't have any proof that they are true. Then we have crossed the line. Faith is not concerned with proof. This is because faith is of the heart as well as the mind. Faith occurs not just because we think something is true, but because we want it to be true and our minds tell us that it may be true. . Faith is the affirmation of this reality.

 

Certainty, unlike both belief and faith, participates little, if at all, in the mind. Indeed, if we say that belief is based in the mind, and faith is based in the joining of heart and mind, then 'certainty' can be said to be based in the body - in our very being itself.

Certainty is based on our experience of something. In knowing something, we do not think or speculate about it. We perceive it so deeply within ourselves as true that we don't have to discuss it, and no matter what anyone else says about it, it does not alter our reality. In this sense, we can say that experience just is. It cannot be proved or disproved. It can go to more and more profound levels of conviction, but it is generally only we ourselves who can testify to it. Our experience is the most interior, private part of ourselves - the part with which we feel the most certain because it lives within us at the deepest place.  To Experience something is to Know it or to be "certain" about it."

 

Below is my own words...

 

So to give an example of it all...  I BELIEVE THAT I WILL GO TO HEAVEN, I HAVE FAITH THAT GOD WILL ALWAYS SUPPLY MY NEEDS, I AM CERTAIN THAT JESUS IS REAL. 

 

In the church Preachers always say that in order for a person not to swayed from his/her belief or faith.... they have to KNOW for themselves.  So in other words if you don't have that certainty in your divinety then you will have doubts. 

 

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:54 PM, Obatunji McKnight <obat...@gmail.com> wrote:

Whats the difference between beliefs, faith and certainties?

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[tamara...@gmail.com]

Or in the sense of non-spiritual...

I believe MLK was a good man (its my belief but their is no certainty behind the statement because I never knew the man myself)
I have faith that the civil rights movements will one day pay off ( so for those who actually marched or stood up against the prejudices, they had faith that their actions would prove valuable. Even though they couldn't see it at that moment)
I am certain that because of the role MLK played in the movement they have decided to have a holiday in his honor T this is a known fact)

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From: Tamara Evans <tamara...@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:36:14 -0500

To: <life...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Group Discussion: Belief, Faith and Certainty