Faith

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For other uses, see Faith (disambiguation).

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Faith.

Faith is hope and belief in the goodness or trustworthiness, of a person, concept or entity.^[1][2]

Religious faith in a theological context is a confident belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Thus, religious faith appeals to "transcendent reality" for issues which cannot be settled by scientific observation. However, atheists and agnostics generally consider religious faith to be simply superstition.

Since faith implies a trusting reliance upon future events or outcomes, it is often taken by some people as inevitably synonymous with a belief "not resting on logical proof or material evidence."^[3][4]

Informal usage of the word faith can be quite broad, and the word is often used as a mere substitute for trust or belief. The English word is thought to date from 1200–50, from the Latin fidem or fidēs, meaning trust, derived from the verb fīdere, to trust.^[1]