Everyone has conviction and belief. On this subject, a pertinent question is imposed on us: Is there a difference between conviction and belief?

Conviction and Belief-What Is a Difference?

At first, we are inclined to ask ourselves the following questions: What is a belief? What is a conviction? As a result of attempts to define these two terms, we would be able to detect whether there is a difference between belief and conviction.

What Is a Belief?

In terms of belief, one should also distinguish between “believe in” and “believe that”. For example, I think the sky is blue. This describes a reality (well, not today, but we’ll say in the spring). However, I know that the atmosphere has no color and that it is a lot of physical phenomena that give it this aspect. But if I tell someone that the sky is blue, he will see it all the less as he is blind. It does not have the same meaning for him and for me. If he tells me “I think the sky is blue,” he will rely on the bottom of the air and the temperature. I understand that it is 18 ° C. and that there is no wind but it will tell me nothing about the color of the sky that can be cloudy. Whereas “to believe in” is to trust, which comes from experience as from intuition (“to believe in God, in his good fortune, in the inspiration of the Bible,” etc.)

” Belief ”: Definitions and Synonyms

Etymology: from classical Latin credere, to hold something true, to believe, to think, to trust, to trust.

Belief is the act of believing, that is, of holding something for real or real, of being persuaded or intimately convinced that it is true or that it exists. Or again, belief is the mental process experienced by a person who adheres to a thesis or hypothesis, so that it regards them as truth, regardless of the facts, or the absence of facts, confirming or invalidating this thesis or this hypothesis.

In this sense, it is opposed to the notion of critical thinking and finds its antithesis in instrumentalism which considers that the scientific models are only instruments allowing us to conceive the phenomena conveniently. A skeptic considers a belief that he does not share as a false belief; a radical skeptic considers all belief, or rather all truth, to be false until proven otherwise.

Belief in Religion

In the realm of religion, belief is the fact of having faith and accepting with submission all or part of the teaching of one’s religion. Religions are built on a set of beliefs and operate through dogmas, or doctrines to which the believer adheres. The believer is then one who has faith, that is to say, he is in a state of thoughtful and active adherence to the fundamental elements of his religion. Core beliefs vary by religion. Synonyms: creed, faith, religious belief.

Belief According to Philosophy

Ancient philosophers contrast belief (an opinion) with knowledge (certainty). When we see the number of their certainties that have proved to be countered, we say that the opposition is not so valid. Unless I am mistaken, Descartes defines belief as the assent to a proposition or a doctrine that is considered true. We are not far from assent to dogma but dogma comes from ” doxa ” in Greek, which means opinion .. There we loop and we cannot say that we are getting closer to the truth. Hume, moreover, thinks that knowledge is only a particular form of belief: indeed, knowledge is true according to the state of the art in a geographically and historically situated society. (“The earth is flat” coincides with the state of the science for a while). Kant sees 3 levels of belief:

– Opinion is an insufficient belief;

– Faith is a belief satisfied by itself, but objectively insufficient;

– Science is a true belief.

Belief and Superstition

Superstition is an attitude involving the belief that certain practices or facts observed are connected with a certain course of the future, without any explanation of cause and effect being given. The superstitious individual will come out of a room if the number of individuals in it is part of a list of numbers that, according to his belief, bring bad luck.

Typology of Belief

The term belief has two common, easily distinguishable uses:

– on the one hand, the hypotheses, taken as true, relating to the phenomena of everyday life, such as a weather forecast, “I do not believe that dolphins are fish”.

– on the other hand, the statements relating to mystics, theology, cosmogony, and myths.

Belief in Other Forms …

* By extension, the term belief refers to opinions that have the form of intimate convictions, certainties, non-rational, and excluding doubt, by which the human mind considers something as true or real.

* Belief can be relative to:

– The existence of something.

Examples: ghosts, the hereafter, the existence of the soul, reincarnation, the existence of a plot. Synonyms: credulity, superstition.

– The reality of something abstract, a thesis, a doctrine, etc.

Examples: a brighter future, indefinite progress, a philosophical belief. Synonyms: membership, trust, conviction, opinion.

* By metonymy, a belief and more particularly beliefs designate, what one believes, that is to say, the object of belief.

Examples: popular beliefs, beliefs in the Middle Ages.

* Beliefs are said to be personal if they are specific to an individual or collective when many people share them.

More generally, any sense of existence or history is a belief. Ideologies like liberalism and socialism are thus beliefs. Atheism is the non-belief in the existence of a God. Agnosticism is the absence of belief.

* The philosophical concept of belief is part of the theory of knowledge. Beliefs, whether religious, scientific, superstitious or otherwise, are also an object of study in cultural anthropology.

Finally, How to Define Belief?

In short, belief is a way of thinking that makes it possible to uncritically assert truths or the existence of things or beings without having to provide proof and independently of the facts that may invalidate this belief. It opposes rational knowledge and objective certainty. If the object of belief is not accessible to experience or scientifically analyzable (for example the existence of God or the hereafter), it is not possible to prove that belief is false. We then speak of non-refutable beliefs.

What Is Conviction?

In Latino, “ convictio ”, of  “ convictum”, “ convincere ”, we have the verb: to convince. Conviction is a term that can be used to define an absolute belief, a certainty.

In the realm of spiritual and/or active life, belief can be defined as: “Certainty of the mind based on evidence deemed sufficient”.

Belief is distinguished from the belief that it participates in the construction of individual and social identity.

However, do not confuse faith with conviction. Conviction is the act of the mind that adheres to what it sees or thinks to see. Faith is the act of the will that submits itself, often without conviction, sometimes against the very conviction, to what an external and higher reason declares true.

In passing, let us emphasize that each individual has his own story, including his share of joys and sufferings. These experiences left in each of us indelible imprints, which influenced the creation of many of our convictions.

So far we have tried to define these two terms namely belief and belief. This question arises again: Is there a difference between belief and conviction? In other words, what is the difference between belief and conviction?

Difference Between Conviction and Belief

Conviction and Belief. The two words are similar. But I think that believing differs from being convinced in the sense that to believe one does not need to be convinced, whereas to be convinced one must necessarily believe.

Indeed, even if a belief is above all a belief, there are indeed slight differences between belief and belief.

On the one hand, belief is something that an individual sees as the truth. As human beings, we all have our own belief systems. For example, let’s take religion. In each religion, there are various beliefs. These beliefs are different from one religion to another. Adherents of various religions view these sets of beliefs as their reality. They recognize these beliefs and make some of them.

Our beliefs can expand and adapt to the new situations we face in life. It is not mandatory that beliefs change completely with new experiences. In most situations, beliefs expand and grow.

On the other hand, a belief is a firm belief that a person has on a particular subject. Belief is usually a little different from belief because a person is convinced of something after having a thorough knowledge and understanding of all available information. It is based on the information that belief is created. Once a conviction has been formed, it is difficult for the individual to see the world in a different light. He sees only things in the light of his conviction.

Thus, contrary to a belief that can change, a belief has very deep roots. It is true that in a belief the individual accepts and recognizes something. However, in a conviction, a much more complex process takes place where belief becomes a point of view through which the individual understands the world.

So we find that if a belief can be defined as the feeling that something exists or is true. On the other hand, a belief can be defined as a firm belief. Do you see this difference between belief and belief?

Consider this aspect of the difference between belief and belief: Belief can be weak and superficial. Unlike a belief, a conviction is stronger and deeper.