You believe that Alaska is real, but you don't "believe in" Alaska. You "believe in" Santa or UFOs, but not algebra.
How is "believing in" something different from "believing" something? How does one "believe in"? I never got the hang of it.
2009-07-16T19:19:44Z
(After 8 answers) I know the difference in how the terms are used, but I don't understand how people can "believe in" something- The two function differently, the words are used in different situations, so it seems reasonable that they are done differently. What do you do to "believe in" something? Unless I can get something specific on this, I will be left with the impression that "believing in" means pretending that you actually believe. Help me out here, folks!
Anonymous2009-07-16T17:32:53Z
Favorite Answer
Believe in is usually used when there is nothing to prove it.
Well i dont know if its the main argument but i know its something that comes up alot. But i honestly think the advantage that christians have over atheists is that they have already experienced both point of views lol. In that they have seen a need or reasons to believe and after believing they only saw more..... lol
To believe means to accept facts as truth. To believe in means to put your trust in the truth.
If I told you that I could walk a tight rope accross the Grand Canyon, you would have no reason not to believe me. If I asked you to jump on my shoulders and let me carry you accross, if you believed "in" me, then you would trust me to carry you safely to the other side.
They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them - the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either - women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men - all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it - emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care - worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!