When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, “But I thought he was a boy?” “So did I,” said Christopher Robin. “Then you can’t call him Winnie?” “I don’t.” “But you said—” “He’s Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don’t you know what ‘ther’ means?” “Ah, yes, now I do,” I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get. (“Winnie the Pooh” A.A. Milne, 2009, p. 1)
So many times, in life this is all one hears, “…because it is all the explanation you are going to get.” That statement seems to be not very helpful, especially when one is trying to find the truth about something or someone. This statement demands that one exercise faith in whoever said it, that truth is being stated. Maybe faith and truth are drawn from the same idea?
The online dictionary, Dictionary.com, defines faith as 1) confidence or trust in a person or thing; 2) belief that is not based on proof; 3) belief in God or in the doctrines of teachings of religion; 4) belief in anything as a code of ethics; etc.
The same source defines truth as 1) the true or actual state of a matter; 2) conformity with fact or reality; 3) a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like, e.g., mathematical truths; 4) the state or character of being true….8) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience. Interestingly this same source describes the origin of the word, ‘truth’, as derived from the Old English word, treowth, which is a cognate of the Old Norse word, tryggth, meaning faith.
I talk to a lot of people in the course of a week. Quite often the word faith comes into our conversations. Almost all the time the understanding by the one who hears the word, faith, is that I am speaking of the Christian religion. Perhaps this is because I am a Chaplain, but I know that other religions work in faith and I suspect that the word, faith, has a significantly broader application.
Using the Christian understanding of faith, the book of Hebrews from the Bible reads, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”(11:1 King James Version); from a Jewish-Christian perspective: “Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.”(11:1 Complete Jewish Bible) I find it very interesting that the word, faith, is equated with the concept of trust. Apparently, there exists a conceptual relationship between these two words, faith and truth. The nexus for faith and truth is trust.
The Spirit of Poohbear 