Question about "faith"

[rockyrockford]

If "faith" is defined as "complete trust or confidence in someone or something".(dictionary.com) As an atheist, do you have complete confidence or trust in anything? or anyone? If so, what is the foundation for that "complete" faith.

I'm not looking for an argument, so you don't have to be guarded. I'm simply wanting to learn more about your belief, or absence of belief.

[Belacqua]

If "faith" is defined as "complete trust or confidence in someone or something".(dictionary.com) As an atheist, do you have complete confidence or trust in anything? or anyone? If so, what is the foundation for that "complete" faith.

I'm not looking for an argument, so you don't have to be guarded. I'm simply wanting to learn more about your belief, or absence of belief.

Probably we all have faith in the consistency of nature. Like, I don't have any worries that the law of gravity is going to reverse itself. I know, intellectually, that it might. We have no absolute proof that it will be consistent. But nobody goes around bolting down his furniture in case it happens. 

Then on a lesser scale I have faith that certain things will happen among people, based on experience. The US government will continue to be mostly terrible for the foreseeable future, stuff like that. This is not to say that change is impossible or the current state is eternal -- just that for now we can trust that it will go on as usual.

[arewethereyet]

I agree with Bel regarding having faith in the consistency of nature.

There's no reason for me to think the sun won't come up in the morning. It may be cloud-covered but it will be there. Ocean waves will ebb and flow. It will rain when the weatherman says it won't and vice versa.

Faith in people? I think it's more a matter of having trust in certain people that is based on their past actions. I think trust is a more fitting word then faith.

[Silver]

I believe in the separation of religious faith and secular faith.

[brewer]

My faith in someone that's living is based on experience. Falls along the same lines as trust. 

You'll need to narrow down what you mean by "something". Is this thing natural? Concrete? Abstract?

[Fake Messiah]

Faith is a belief without evidence. If one had sufficient evidence to warrant belief in a particular claim, then one wouldn’t believe the claim on the basis of faith. "Faith" is the word one uses when one does not have enough evidence to justify holding a belief, but when one just goes ahead and believes anyway.

For example, let's assume Jesus existed and was buried in a tomb. One can believe the corpse was missing for any number of reasons, like one can believe the body arose from the dead and ascended to heaven, one can believe aliens took the body in their spaceship, or one can believe a ghost haunting the tomb merged with the corpse and animated it. Belief in any of these claims would require faith because there’s insufficient evidence to justify any one of these particular options. Belief in any of these claims would also disregard other, far more likely possibilities - for example, that the corpse was stolen, hidden, or moved.

If one claims knowledge either in the absence of evidence, or when a claim is contradicted by evidence, then this is when the word "faith" is used. "Believing something anyway" is an accurate definition of the term "faith."

[Nay_Sayer]

“Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals"

-Christopher Hitchens-

[outtathereligioncloset]

I have faith that there is no Grand Plan. I have some faith in science, medicine and the general power of education. I have a great deal of faith in Chaos.

[Ranjr]

Sometimes I have faith that things will be okay despite indications they will not.  It serves to keep me focused on performing tasks that increase the likelihood that things will be okay.

[zebo-the-fat]

As others have pointed out, faith is what you need if you have no evidence.