Peanut Gallery Thread for Explain This #1: Belief vs. Knowledge

[vulcanlogician]

I like the idea of this thread for us to make comments. DLJ gets kudos for the most comprehensive answer, but does his answer really capture the essence of the difference between belief and knowledge? ShirkahnW had a good point with:

There is no such thing as knowledge. We believe in everything. We describe something as knowledge as soon as it is too unlikely that it will not happen.

But I would have phased it like this: "There is no such thing as knowledge. We believe in everything. [Knowledge is merely a belief which we think is substantiated]."
Epistemologically speaking, this may be the most accurate.

mlmooney captured the colloquial use of the word "belief" while differentiating between true and false knowledge:

Belief is something you want to be true so you say it is.

Knowledge is when you are sure something is true. Mind you the true part doesn't mean it actually is true. IE "It is to the best of my knowledge that Elizabeth is still the English queen." It is a statement made from actual facts but could still be wrong (say the queen died but the speaker didn't know)

I think the best definition would harmonize the colloquial and epistemological aspects of both terms. Khemikal sort of did this:

Belief describes those propositions which we currently hold to be true. Knowledge describes those propositions we can show to be true.

Whether anyone else can do it better, we'll see.

Also, a hard deadline to post answers and vote with kudos might help the thread in general.

Edit: Actually considering mlmooney definition the best at this point.