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Especially on the Catholic side, folk customs existed alongside official doctrine and ritual, such as around unrecognized local saints. These customs often escaped the control of the clergy. Priests generally regarded popular beliefs as superstitions. They claimed the monopoly of the “true” faith. Power relations led to two kinds of “beliefs.”
As the scientific worldview emerged alongside the religious view, the ecclesiastical monopoly was undermined. “Believe” has taken on the new meaning of “assuming something that is scientifically incorrect.” With this came a different way of “believing” – a belief in life without the sacred. You could say, “I believe in science.”
Because it proved possible to leave the church, the meaning of creed as “church membership” was emphasized. Reports on the state of secularization are published almost every year. “Fewer and fewer believers”, headlines the title. If you read on, that means fewer people belong to a church. Believe as a member of the church.
This does not mean that those who leave the church continue without faith. Even though people exercise on Sunday mornings, they retain elements of faith: a singing line that touches the heart in times of crisis, a candle that is lit. This is the situation of about half of the Dutch population, including lovers of Mattheus-Passion and The Passion. Faith without church.
Interestingly, scientists have become more aware of the role of unproven hypotheses in their own work. Even within science, one can intuitively “assume something that is scientifically incorrect.” Yet people say, “I think we need to explore this further.” Belief as suspicion.
Language plays contemporary with the word ‘believe’. Is your language use flexible?
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