What is faith ?

[Channel72]

Faith is the epistemological position that strong (usually religious) beliefs can be axiomatic at the believer's psychological fiat. It's not always religious, a gambler may have faith his system will absolutely pay out on the next bet, for instance.

That's a good definition. Faith is not always a negative thing either, even if it's not strictly rational. For example, an individual might have faith in their ability to accomplish something very difficult or statistically unlikely. A more rational person might not even make the attempt, given the likelihood of failure. But without this irrational drive, it would be difficult for humans to accomplish anything extraordinary.

[Commander Veers]

Faith, I would imagine, would have stemmed from nothingness as some sort of mental defence mechanism. People can have their heads in the clouds as long as they have a faith that covers enough. Take religions as an example of course. Without faith, there is nothing to believe in. Only things to consider from a rational, objective point of view. And we know that some people are incapable of doing this.

Knowledge is power. Power is self-esteem. Self-esteem is a complex branch of humanity's original instinct to survive. So knowledge is a very useful thing for a frail species like our own. Back in the day when we did not have science to call upon, we simply devised ideas that might help to make sense of things. Otherwise we were in the dark. And human's don't like things that they don't understand, seeing as things they don't understand originally would have been able to hold more power and therefore defeat them. Or something along those lines. Well there's the invention of faith for you. I could probably type an essay on the matter but I need some sleep. I think others have summarised the actual definition quite well. I just though I'd add a new element.