There is a story that a teacher once asked a class for a definition of faith. One of the children answered: "Faith is when you believe something which you know ain't true" ("Faith, Reason and Doubt-). In modern society, faith is viewed as a fragile, tenuous thing, vague and indistinct. There are many, believers and unbelievers alike, which could sympathize with this schoolboy's definition. What is faith? Is it belief in one's god? How does one find faith? Can someone that claims to have faith ever doubt? To further complicate our idealistic view of faith, one must realize that we cannot simply examine it externally. It is a paradox. It cannot simply be viewed from "outside of the box- as any other problem might be. Faith is a mystery to us because we are internal to it. In order to understand faith, we must stand "inside of the box- looking out. .
In The American Heritage Dictionary, faith is defined as a "confident belief or trust in a person, idea, or thing- (308). The Bible, however, says, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen- (1532). It is a common misconception that faith is having belief in god. In this passage, the author proves that faith and god do not necessarily go hand in hand:.
"Albert Schweitzer admitted that there isn't a shred of conclusive proof that Christ ever lived, let alone was the Son of God. He concluded that one must therefore accept both on faith. I reject both for the same reason. Religion is a crutch, and only the crippled need crutches. I can get around perfectly well on my own two feet and so can everyone else with a backbone and a grain of common sense- (Dembosky, par. 1).
There are many, which have said that atheists have faith just like everyone else, and that there is no one who can do without having faith in something. This is, however, misleading if you mean "faith- to be nothing more than "belief-. In reality, faith is often used to describe a specific justification for believing in something, rather than just saying that you believe in it.