Nevertheless, belief can be described as certainty about what cannot be seen in Applied Mathematics. Applied Mathematics involves the usage of mathematics in the real world. In this respect, the calculation made using the theoretical mathematics can never give a high degree of certainty. Let say a group of engineers intend to build a suspension bridge which can bear the mass of 5 tonne. From their calculations, they found out that the bridge should then be built with a piling of 15 metres deep. In real-life situation, engineers would never take this value exactly, instead they will double or triple the value. This is simply because they can hardly proof the calculations to work in nature. Here, the concept of the notion is applicable where engineers just try to be certain about things they never could have seen. Only now, from experiences, engineers get sort of clues on the conditions needed to build a safe and relatively stronger bridge.
In religion, the notion hold true most of the time. Religion is the area of knowledge deals a lot with belief and faith. Many religions in the world namely Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism promote the concept of believing in God , the Creator of all things. Since mankind is one of God’s creations, thus mankind cannot see God. The existence of God and metaphysical things are known through the strong faith introduced by religions. This is where belief can be described as certainty about what cannot be seen. Humans are unable to see paradise, hell and other metaphysical things but the inculcation and the power of belief made believers certain about the prevalence of all these.
To fully posit that religion is solely based on the notion is also not a correct conviction. Since religions vary, some religions do not ask their believers to belief in something blindly. There are quite many parts in the religion that give us physical evidences of what the believers are told to believe in. For instance, in Islam, the believers are also taught to believe in the existence of Allah. Yes, in this respect, the notion is agreeable. But, on top of that, the believers are taught to ponder over the creation of the world and the universe. The magnificent creations of all these are actually Signs and clear proofs of the existence of God, which believers are told to have faith in. This shows that in religion, belief can also be described as certainty about what can indirectly be seen.
Natural science has thus far made great breakthroughs in various areas such as medicine, physics, chemistry and so forth. Due to its rigorous way of deriving facts and knowledge, natural science confer on a high degree of certainty. In this area of knowledge, the Tripartite theory introduced by the philosopher named Plato really applicable. Plato claims that in order for any knowledge to be defined as truth, it must fulfill three criteria. First, it must be believed, second it is justified and third it must be true. Looking at scientific facts, they fulfill all the criteria and therefore accepted as truth. Here, we can indeed understand the nature of natural science. Natural science comes with physical evidence and justification, therefore anything which is yet to be justified and duplicable can never be accepted. The question is how does natural science defines belief? When we say we belief, in natural science it means that we are certain of things that can indirectly or directly be seen , proven and duplicable. For example, when Sir Isaac Newton claims that the world has a gravitational force, his conviction is accepted owing to the capability of repetitively provide the impact of his claim. As and when you throw an object from the ground, it will always come back to the ground.
Nonetheless, there are several instances whereby the notion applies very much in the natural science. In the case of cryonics technology where patients who fail to be cured by the current medical treatment are cryopreserved for certain time period, this is when the notion holds true. Evidently, scientists are able to vitrify the patients but they do not have the technology to re-warm and resuscitate the vitrified patients momentarily. They just resolve to carry out such a procedure in the belief that technology is improving very rapidly and perhaps they can use the future nanotechnology in medicine to revitalize the patients. Here, the scientists still belief on such a procedure although they cannot really foresee the future.
Another area of knowledge which can be analysed is Economics. Economics essentially deals with how humans utilize the scarcity of the resources and the subject is divided into two subcategory namely microeconomics and macroeconomics. As part of the social science element, economics deals with theories made based on the observations of humans behaviours. For example, the relationship between inflation and unemployment, it was postulated based on the observation of how markets work. Although many variables may just bring the theory into non-plausible state, economics always apply “ceteris paribus” concept where other variables are put constant to validate the relationship. Economics never deals with only an outcome and this is where we can see that to a certain extent, “animal instinct” plays part. In this sense, the notion does hold true. When an economist predicts something, it is based on certain theories developed. But, the economist can never be sure because any changes in other variables may just deviate the anticipated outcome. Giving an example of Malaysia during 1997 economy recession, during that time, the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir had gone for pegging RM to US Dollar. The avenue taken was greatly criticized due to the application which went against the economic theory. Malaysia carried on with the means in the strong belief that its economy will ultimately recovered. Finally, in year 2000, Malaysia had proven itself to be right with its economy recovery. Overall in economy, when we say we belief, it means we are up to certain degree certain about what cannot be seen.
From the discussion, we can clearly see that the definition of belief in areas of knowledge depends on the objectivity of the knowledge itself. Like Mathematics and Natural Science, the capability of them to demonstrate the objectivity in reaching to the answers lead to the concept of seeing is believing. For Religion and Economics, the subjectivity in reaching to answers lead to the concept of belief as certainty about what cannot be seen. Therefore, we can conclude that different areas of knowledge impart different definition of the concept of belief base on the objectivity and subjectivity characteristics that appear in them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
World Wide Web
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- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceteris_paribus
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- http://www.30goodminutes.org/csec/sermon/boyd_3515.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceteris_paribus
http://www.30goodminutes.org/csec/sermon/boyd_3515.htm
