Believing and Knowing

"All it takes is faith and trust..." (and a little bit of pixie dust)- Disney's Peter Pan

Faith and trust, belief and knowing. The similarities are many and the differences subtle. It was very interesting to discuss belief and knowing in class on Tuesday. It's a big concept to wrap your mind around and I'm still working on it. These are my thoughts:

I know I am a female homo sapien. But that is because I have faith in the people who decided that it was the proper name for the species and gender I belong to.

I also know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. But it is not because I have faith in the "fact based" historians or the Discovery Channel specials, I have faith in Him, in God, in the comfort that comes with the whole set of beliefs that the Catholic Church has passed on.

"Believing" tends to connote that there is something "assumed," that someone or something has persuaded you to have faith in a certain "truth." Beliefs often shift, grow, disappear, and continuously change.

I don't think knowing and believing are completely separate things. Knowledge can help clarify beliefs just as belief can be the driving factor to find knowledge in a certain area of your life.