Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
In actual fact—and I think that I am right in my understanding of the classical philosophers and the early Church fathers on this point—faith is not in any way an irrational ontological claim; rather, it is an intense hope or expectation in the absence of all the evidence. This is the furthest thing from certainty. This sort of faith remains fairly comfortable in acknowledging its limitations, and is much more malleable than how the fundamentalist apologists choose to exploit it.
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I agree with your interpretation of faith here, but I think that it and doubt are still opposites. Or one might say they are opposite sides of the same coin. Specifically, they are opposite reactions to the same state; both can only exist in a state of uncertainty.
You equate faith to an intense hope or expectation, which I would agree with. But these things are a reaction to how we deal with uncertainty. Doubt is an equally valid reaction to the same state of uncertainty. Of course, part of the problem with describing faith and doubt as opposites is that they are not mutually exclusive, as opposites often (but not always) are. The nature of uncertainty means that no reaction to it is going to be mutually exclusive with any other reaction.