Belief & Faith. Unamuno, Life 9.5
~ In Unamuno's view, belief requires some personal confidence whose referent is eventually future (and so unknown to creatures like ourselves, which dwell in the present & see the past rather than the future). The future is unknown until it manifests as present, & the past is vulnerable always to lies (in good faith, when we deceive ourselves unknowingly, and bad, when we deceive others on purpose). Faith is the bridge that we create between what we know (a past whose appearance in our memory is eternally suspect) and what we don't (a future that is invisible & unknown, essentially unknowable). This faith is not strictly belief, per se, but Unamuno will take both faith & belief as referring ultimately to the same thing: personal confidence in the universal Person(s) known as God. ~
Y como la persona es una voluntad y la voluntad se refiere siempre al porvenir, el que cree, cree en lo que vendrá, esto es, en lo que espera. No se cree, en rigor, lo que es y lo que fué, sino como garantía, como sustancia de lo que será. Creer el cristiano en la resurrección de Cristo, es decir, creer a la tradición y al Evangelio — y ambas potencias son personales — que le dicen que el Cristo resucitó, es creer que resucitará él un día por la gracia de Cristo. Y hasta la fe científica, pues la hay, se refiere al porvenir y es acto de confianza. El hombre de ciencia cree que en tal día venidero se verificará un eclipse de sol, cree que las leyes que hasta hoy han regido al mundo seguirán rigiéndolo.
Creer, vuelvo a decirlo, es dar crédito a uno, y se refiere a persona. Digo que sé que hay un animal llamado caballo, y que tiene estos y aquellos caracteres, porque lo he visto, y que creo en la existencia del llamado jirafa u ornitorrinco, y que sea de este o el otro modo, porque creo a los que aseguran haberlo visto. Y de aquí el elemento de incertidumbre que la fe lleva consigo, pues una persona puede engañarse o engañarnos.
The person is a will, and will refers always to the future. Hence the believer believes in what shall come: in his own hope, in other words. He does not believe really or rigorously in the past, except as a kind of guarantee, or substance, of the future. The Christian believes in Christ's resurrection: in the tradition, and in the gospel, two things whose power is personal. When tradition and gospel tell him that Christ is risen, the consequence for him is belief that he too will rise one day, by the grace of Christ. Even scientific faith, which does exist, refers to the future in similar fashion: it is an act of confidence. The man of science believes that in some future day an eclipse of the sun will occur. He believes that the laws which have ruled the world thus far shall continue ruling it.
Belief, I repeat, is credit that we give to someone. It refers to a person. I say that there exists an animal known as the horse, and that it has certain characteristics, because I have seen it. I believe in the existence of the so-called giraffe, or of the platypus, which supposedly have their own characteristics, because I trust others who assure me that they have seen these animals. Behold the element of uncertainty that faith carries within: a person can deceive himself, or us.
Creer, vuelvo a decirlo, es dar crédito a uno, y se refiere a persona. Digo que sé que hay un animal llamado caballo, y que tiene estos y aquellos caracteres, porque lo he visto, y que creo en la existencia del llamado jirafa u ornitorrinco, y que sea de este o el otro modo, porque creo a los que aseguran haberlo visto. Y de aquí el elemento de incertidumbre que la fe lleva consigo, pues una persona puede engañarse o engañarnos.
The person is a will, and will refers always to the future. Hence the believer believes in what shall come: in his own hope, in other words. He does not believe really or rigorously in the past, except as a kind of guarantee, or substance, of the future. The Christian believes in Christ's resurrection: in the tradition, and in the gospel, two things whose power is personal. When tradition and gospel tell him that Christ is risen, the consequence for him is belief that he too will rise one day, by the grace of Christ. Even scientific faith, which does exist, refers to the future in similar fashion: it is an act of confidence. The man of science believes that in some future day an eclipse of the sun will occur. He believes that the laws which have ruled the world thus far shall continue ruling it.
Belief, I repeat, is credit that we give to someone. It refers to a person. I say that there exists an animal known as the horse, and that it has certain characteristics, because I have seen it. I believe in the existence of the so-called giraffe, or of the platypus, which supposedly have their own characteristics, because I trust others who assure me that they have seen these animals. Behold the element of uncertainty that faith carries within: a person can deceive himself, or us.