Belief and Knowledge

[Jenny A]

The crux of it is that knowledge requires rational proof. Belief can be just an opinion held with or without, or even in the face of the evidence. Belief can also be an opinion rationally based on what is most likely. It is possible to hold a belief while knowing that it is only the most likely outcome not the only possibility and therefore subject to change should new evidence present itself. That would be a rationally held belief.

Knowledge requires an experience. I have knowledge of Jenny A because of a practical contact with you by way of conversing on the internet.

Empirical knowledge requires an experience. You experience a collection of posts by a person, persons, or rather more improbably a computer program, under the name of Jenny A. You have knowledge of the character and content of those posts. Most likely you have some rationally held beliefs about Jenny A. You may also have some irrationally held beliefs about Jenny A.

You also have knowledge that 1 + 1 = 2. That knowledge is entirely logical.

Belief requires a commitment which is a choice. I believe, or have committed to the ideal that you are an attorney or someone who otherwise works or is studying to work in the field of law. I don't know that to be true, I don't have any experience which allows me to know that to be true....but I believe it to be true.

I think that's an odd use of the word commit.

transitive verb
1
a : to put into charge or trust : entrust
<snip>
2
: to carry into action deliberately : perpetrate <commit a crime>
3
a : obligate, bind <a contract committing the company to complete the project on time>
b : to pledge or assign to some particular course or use <commit all troops to the attack>
c : to reveal the views of <refused to commit himself on the issue>

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commit

You have some indications about my profession based upon what I say about myself, knowledge displayed by me, how I say things, what is important to me, and my vocabulary. My spelling might suggest I'm rather less educated than that. I hope you haven't committed too deeply because yours is a perfect example of mistaken but rationally held belief. In this case, not so very mistaken. I am not an attorney nor studying to be one. But I once was an attorney. I have not practiced in 15 years.

You could rationally choose to trust what I say about myself on based on the contents of my posts, but you could equally rationally withhold judgment. The first would be a belief, the second not. You could also affirmative choose not to believe me and that would also be a belief. You see belief is merely thinking something is so. There's no need to commit or pledge, though you certainly could make an irrational leap of faith and commit to many beliefs about me. You could for example try very hard to believe I'm a witch and perhaps even succeed.

Lack of belief is simply a lack of commitment. When an atheists claims to have no belief in God, they are expressing they have chosen not to commit to the idea of the existence of God.

It's not quite that simple. Lack of belief can be simply not having thought about the matter sufficiently to form a belief, or determining after thought that there isn't enough evidence to decide the matter. Do you believe that my hair is red or perhaps brown? You have no knowledge whether it is or isn't either of those colors. You don't know. Are you failing to commit to a belief that my hair is red, or are you simply saying, I don't know what color Jenny's hair is. I would say you are without knowledge or belief about my hair color. There's no lack of commitment, just a genuine lack of knowledge.

However, when many atheists, me included, say we lack a belief in god, what we mean is I don't believe there is a god because if there were I would expect there to be some evidence of it, but I acknowledge that a negative position can never be proven.

Now when an atheist is asked, "Do you believe in abiogenesis" and the reply is, "I don't know"....."I don't know" is a statement about knowledge and doesn't tell us anything about what you actually believe or what ideas you have chosen to commit too.

Yes, it's a statement about knowledge. So is I don't know if there is a god.