I’ve been thinking about faith recently, and it occurs to me that I might not understand what religious theists mean when they say they have faith. It is obvious to me that those with faith in god consider this faith different than the faith they place in their friends and family, or in completing something successfully, or in the sun still existing tomorrow. So, for the sake of argument, I’m only discussing the special kind of faith religious individuals have in god.

Merriam Webster defines faith as a “belief and trust in and loyalty to God” and a “firm belief in something for which there is no proof”.

The problem I face in understanding faith is when religious theists claim to have both faith in and proof of their god. This seems to present a contradiction.

If you believe in a god based on faith, which by definition is a belief with no proof, then attempting to supply proof for your belief would only diminish your faith in that god. By contrast, if you believe in a god based on proof and then also claim your belief comes from faith, then you admit that your proof alone for that god is an insufficient reason for belief.

So, it seems an honest belief in a god must be one based completely around faith with an absence of proof, or completely around proof with an absence of faith.

Even if faith were supposed to reflect the first definition – “belief and trust in and loyalty to God” – without the concept that it is a belief without proof, then the only answer you can provide to the question, “why do you believe in god,” is, “because I believe in god.”

For those of you with faith in god, please feel free to clarify the meaning of faith and/or answer the questions below.

Does having faith necessarily preclude having proof?

Does having proof decrease the amount or intensity of your faith?

Does faith mean simply believing in god?

I often hear believers claim that others should “have more faith.” What does this mean? Can you possess different levels or degrees of faith? Or does it make more sense to assume you either have faith or you don’t?