You would think that one would not have a problem separating what they know from what they believe. But Christians, when discussing their faith, will use these terms, perhaps unknowingly, to mean the same thing. I was witness to one such bizarre discussion this last Christmas. The discussion started out with the Christian believer stating their beliefs such as Jesus is the Savior and the Son of God. As the discussion progressed, this person switched to using “I know” instead of “I believe.” The other person in the discussion noticed this switching as well and tried to correct them by stating that you cannot say that you know that Jesus is the Savior and the Son of God and that you know the Bible is the inerrant word of God. The believer misinterpreted this correction as an attack on their beliefs and countered with an angry, “You can’t tell me what I can or can’t  believe.” I think that I and the other person on the other end of the discussion were the only two people in the room that understood what was going on. The other Christians present were oblivious, because they too were understanding the two to be the same, when it came to their religion.

One can believe anything they want to, but I will correct them if they state something as if it is fact when indeed it is not. If we had a knowledge that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, it would not be called faith. It is impossible to know this as fact. One may have convinced themselves through their faith that this is fact, but it still is not fact. I will also correct someone if they try to replace fact with belief and call it fact, such as what Christian fundamentalists try to do with the age of the earth or how man has evolved.

Another claim that this Christian fundamentalist made, as if it were fact, was that we have the original copies of the books in the New Testament. What? The original copies of the books written by the authors? Any New Testament scholar knows that this is not true. All we have are copies of copies written in Greek. Incidentally, from all of these copies we can see when things were added, removed or modified, such as the addition of the story of the adulteress, which is not in the earlier manuscripts. So much for knowing that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

This confusion stems from the evangelical practice of ”witnessing” or “testifying,” where a believer will testify, with confidence and without any doubt, that they know certain things to be true that are in reality only beliefs and cannot possibly be known. I did this as well as a missionary, which I did not feel comfortable doing and was ultimately one of the many reasons I left religion. You can’t just arbitrarily state that things are true without putting them to the test and you cannot test faith. Once again, that is why it is called faith. It is also understandable that fundamentalists do this because they also confuse the meanings the of the words “idea” and “theory.”

Of course one is entitled to believe what they want to believe, but they must also keep it in the context of belief and not in the realm of facts. Keeping belief and fact clearly separated does not have to diminish the importance of one’s faith. And, in fact, it will increase their credibility.