Spirituality,
religion, faith etc tend to be emotive concepts, and ones which tend to
have fluffy definitions. I suspect that the softness of the
definitions is to either avoid argument or cause it depending on the
requirements of the protagonists.
So, to avoid
confusion about what I mean by various terms, I present the Official Definitions According
to Pat - which may well be unrelated to what you think the
words mean. And I am open to discussion on the meanings - that is
rather the point of all my pages on this website!
A quick
attribution - many of these meanings were beaten out with my good friend
and colleague Edwin Porter-Daniels, albeit on the basis of things I had
been thinking about for years before I met him :-)
Definition
provides edges, boundaries, spheres of influence, and clarity.
These definitions. hopefully, provide some of those things, at least in
relation to the way I mean the words when I use them.
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Faith - is
ignoring proof against your certainty
Belief -
is a level of certainty without the need for proof
Knowledge -
is a level of certainty based on available proof
Superstition -
is a level of certainty with no possibility of proof
Spirituality -
attention to the metaphysical rather than physical
Religion -
the traditions and rote practice associated with Belief
Interestingly, whilst
writing some of the pages on this site, I have discovered that Plato
described knowledge as 'justified true belief' which fits in rather well
with these definitions, I am glad to say - it is such a pain trying to
argue with dead guys (well, that is probably a matter of my lack of
belief, of course).
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Examples in use
I have belief that
I will maintain this website. Every previous website I have created
and tried to maintain has fallen by the wayside. But I am absolutely sure that
I have the will power and level of interest to keep this one up to date -
despite the evidence to the contrary.
I have faith that I am a
universally likeable chap - I filter out the reactions of those who
clearly find my sense of humour irritating. (I probably shouldn't,
but that is an entirely different matter!)
I know that
people in general find me to be intelligent, because they take advantage
of opportunities for anonymous feedback to say so.
I hold the superstition
that there is a fundamental set of physical laws governing the way the
universe works. I cannot, even in theory, ever prove it to be the
case, although obviously I can work towards discovering as much of it as
possible.
I spend some time tending
to my spirituality
because I have a supersition
that it is right to do so, the knowledge
that it gives me a sense of calm and a belief that
it might turn out to be more important later.
I practice the religion we call
scientific method.
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