The word “faith” generates a disproportionate amount of confusion in conversations about epistemology. Colloquially, the word “faith” is interchangeable with the word “trust.” The accusation that we all exhibit faith in our sources of knowledge is grounded on an equivocation with the concept of trust. If the meaning of “faith” always directly paralleled the meaning of “trust”, then it would resolve much confusion assuming everyone has the same understanding of what it means to trust. For example, you might trust an apple exists at the grocery store despite the fact that you are not on location to observe it. The foundation of your trust in this case is based on implicit empirical evidence you have collected from previous visits to the grocery store where you consistently observed apples in the produce section. Therefore, the application of faith here is reasonable because it refers to a conceptual truth as supported by an implicit empirical foundation. However, having a reasonable faith in a claim does not mean the claim is empirically true or that you can claim to know it is empirically true.
Conversely, if you had no prior knowledge of apples being sold at the grocery store, you would lack the implicit empirical foundation upon which your faith in the claim would be justified. Likewise, if your prior experiences with grocery stores were that they never maintained a supply of apples in the produce section, trusting the aforementioned claim would not be reasonable because the implicit empirical evidence would contradict it in this case. Similarly, if a grocery store advertises "eternal salvation" for sale, you would have neither a conceptual nor implicit empirical basis to have faith in the advertisement. In fact, the available conceptual and implicit empirical evidence would better justify faith in the alternative claim which suggests "eternal salvation" is more likely the brand name of some type of food product.
Now, consider how the word “faith” is used in the following statement, “It is by faith I know eternal salvation is sold at the grocery store.” Here, faith is given as the method (epistemology) used to distinguish knowledge from belief. When the word “trust” is substituted for the word “faith” in this context, the statement suggests I acquired such knowledge by trusting the grocery store can sell me eternal salvation. However, there is no objective reason given to justify why that particular claim should be trusted. Therefore, my decision to trust the claim must have either been arbitrary or influenced by some form of undisclosed bias. As such, I could have equally chosen not to trust that particular claim for some arbitrary or biased reason and applied my faith towards another competing or contradictory claim instead. This ability to achieve multiple different or contradictory conclusions through the application of the same method exposes the unreliability of using faith as an epistemological foundation for acquiring a functional knowledge base.
Conversely, if you had no prior knowledge of apples being sold at the grocery store, you would lack the implicit empirical foundation upon which your faith in the claim would be justified. Likewise, if your prior experiences with grocery stores were that they never maintained a supply of apples in the produce section, trusting the aforementioned claim would not be reasonable because the implicit empirical evidence would contradict it in this case. Similarly, if a grocery store advertises "eternal salvation" for sale, you would have neither a conceptual nor implicit empirical basis to have faith in the advertisement. In fact, the available conceptual and implicit empirical evidence would better justify faith in the alternative claim which suggests "eternal salvation" is more likely the brand name of some type of food product.
Now, consider how the word “faith” is used in the following statement, “It is by faith I know eternal salvation is sold at the grocery store.” Here, faith is given as the method (epistemology) used to distinguish knowledge from belief. When the word “trust” is substituted for the word “faith” in this context, the statement suggests I acquired such knowledge by trusting the grocery store can sell me eternal salvation. However, there is no objective reason given to justify why that particular claim should be trusted. Therefore, my decision to trust the claim must have either been arbitrary or influenced by some form of undisclosed bias. As such, I could have equally chosen not to trust that particular claim for some arbitrary or biased reason and applied my faith towards another competing or contradictory claim instead. This ability to achieve multiple different or contradictory conclusions through the application of the same method exposes the unreliability of using faith as an epistemological foundation for acquiring a functional knowledge base.
