Inquiring mind wants to know, gods damn it!
Faith is blind and lacks the ability to prove it. Belief is the same until one can prove it.
@schway Can you prove that the sun will rise tomorrow? Can you prove there will be a tomorrow as we know it? What if we get hit by a commet tonight a really big one what will be tommorow be like. We have faith and a belief that these will be. Big deal what does it matter what the word means.
Proof Justifies belief
Proof denies and destroys faith
@schway Anything accepted without proof is by definition an act of faith
From dictionary.com:
Faith
noun
Belief
noun
Depends on definition and usage. Properly, in my view, a belief is formed around a perception (rightly or not) that the preponderance of evidence (valid or not) leans significantly in a particular direction. In other words it is at least nominally evidence-based.
Religious faith is affording belief without a requirement of substantiation or the deployment of any sort of skeptical or critical thinking or objective observation. In general it grants belief to asserted truth rather than actual reality.
Colloqual faith, is a near polar opposite to religious faith. It is actually just trust or at times hope, based on experience or sound reasoning. It has as its input, some fact(s) of existence that would lead a reasonable person to consider this trust or hope to represent a reasonable expectation. Whereas religious faith would just declare by fiat that a thing is so, with no more basis than an assertion of religious dogma (from scripture or from theological authority-figures).
Online dictionary definition of faith:
"confidence or trust in a person or thing:
faith in another's ability.
belief that is not based on proof:
He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion:"
Online dictionary definition of belief:
"something believed; an opinion or conviction:
a belief that the earth is flat.
confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof:
a statement unworthy of belief.
confidence; faith; trust:"
Well, belief is mental, and faith is fanatical. You have beliefs in certain things because of what you've observed, while faith is experienced without evidence.
Let's put it like this:
"I believe I left the oven on." That makes sense as a sentence.
"I have faith that I left the oven on." That makes no sense.
It's easier to illustrate the difference than to define it. A belief is usually based on some kind of rational evidence. Faith is based on no evidence whatsoever.