I suspect that much of this learning comes from context. As as person grows up with a language they pick up the meaning from their environment; from the people around them and from how those people use words.
I've just picked up a nuance that has changed my perspective on a couple of words in an interesting way. I guess that is learning. Perhaps if it is useful I will continue to call it such.
So what is this transformation, this epiphany, (one of my favorite words!) you ask?
So first for the history. I used to treat the words fact, belief, and faith as an ordered set of qualifiers on important stuff in the world around us.
- Facts were great - they always had near-perfect truth value. Facts rock!
- Beliefs were what people used when they couldn't find the facts. They were nearly as good. The only problem with beliefs that they only became nearly as good as Facts with vigorous debate and defense. Sort of like Facts that required maintenance.
- Faith I viewed as a distant third in my hierarchy - something that people adopted if they were too far from the facts, or too lazy, to establish and defend a Belief.
Hey - a pretty good taxonomy if I do say so myself. So what's wrong?
Thanks to some reading (a book called "The Enoch Factor") and some pondering, I've re-ordered my taxonomy (or at least I think I have, I've gotta see how this works in the long run). My new ordered taxonomy is:
- Facts (they still rock). I like basing my world on things that are true.
- Faith (pulling ahead to number 2 from the distant 3rd place). The rationale is as follows. Faith represents candidate facts that don't need defense. Items of faith don't need vigorous defense to be taken and used as true. They are not really subject to healthy debate because they are not altered by that debate. They also pass the critical test of utility (otherwise they are indicators of insanity) - they make life better for those that hold them. Good examples: I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, or I have faith that humans are warming the earth.
- Belief in my mind has fallen to the not so distant third. The definition has not changed in my mind, but the value and utility has. At the very least a belief is decreased in value by the effort required to maintain it.
And why does it matter? For one thing I think I have become a better listener and capable of a better understanding when people profess a faith in God. This Faith is a good thing, and in fact a better thing than a Belief in God because it by definition requires no defense. It is useful without waste or noise. It also matters because I can make an important distinction between the search for Faith, and the search for Belief. I no longer feel as strong a need to try and resolve the inconsistencies and incongruities in the defense of specific Beliefs, either of the Christian religion, or in specifics of people's definition of God. I will not strive to build (and defend) beliefs. I will seek Faith.
In closing I'll note that I seem to have used this semantic exercise to send myself chasing a different wild goose. Seems a little silly on the face of it. It also seems like a better goose to chase: easier to find, and more valuable if I find it.
