Do people confuse faith with belief?

Question

A interesting answer to my previous question stated:

''I admit I base my decision to believe on faith, as well as experience. Now, can you admit that you base your non-belief on faith as well? ''

An answer that shows concise reasoning and thoughtfulness. And to this I replied that I did have ''faith'' in a universe without a creator god, a ''belief'' that we exist without religion. I have based this on my experience of the evidence that I have seen.

So why is it someone like this who can answer my question truthfully and with a high level of understanding, but many other religious people here will ignorantly answer my questions with, ''Because I have faith and you don't so you're wrong''?

P.S. Q re-listed with the help of Insigthere =D

Answer 1

(YES);  people DO "confuse" faith with belief !

Answer 2

I think they omit part of their sentence. They have faith in their deity and their belief system in particular, and you do not have faith in that same deity and belief system. You therefore don't look at the issue from the same perspective and with the same eyes. Their relationship with their deity is something you have not experienced, and therefore something you cannot really comment on.

That doesn't mean they're right, or that they even have all that good a relationship with their deity. Too often people have a tendency to cling to the outer trappings of religion and put their faith in the established structure, belief system, what they are taught - rather than seeking religious understanding personally. And far, far too often people fall back on that statement, "because I have faith", because they have no actual answer for you and are using it as a cop-out.

Having said that, there are circumstances when it's used honestly. I am a polytheist. How do I know my deities exist? I have no objective proof, nor do I believe objective proof of deity could ever exist. The only "proof" of deity is subjective and personal. Unverified Personal Gnosis, you might say. I know they are there, and I have faith in them. I can't give you anything more than that, and I don't see much point in the question being asked. But then, I also believe that religion is not for everyone, that many people have no desire to follow a deity and that is fine. As you have said, that is faith in its own way, faith in the evidence that has been presented to you subjectively. One can ask no more.

In this wise, no, faith and religion are not the same thing. There are circumstances where one might use the terms interchangeably, but that doesn't make them synonymous in all cases.