Religion is an act of fear. Faith is act of liberation. — Raef Kandil
Are you defining religious belief as an act of fear, or describing it as such? Are you defining faith as an act of liberation, or describing it as so?
In mathematics, we have notation to separate definition from description. It is not always used, but it is nice when it is.
.
The above is not a derived identity, it is a defined identity. We define
i to mean the square root of minus one, because
i is a more practical symbol to use than
. Now, compare that to the normal equality sign:
If we define
i to be the square root of one, the above identity
follows from the description, with the help of external definitions and rules (see exponentiation). Thus, (1) is a definition, and (2) is a description.
Now, in mathematics,
is sometimes used as
. For this part however, assume that the normal equality sign is always a description of a previously defined quantity/object:
Okay, now, what can I do?
Nope, that would contradict my definition. How about:
Sure; that would make
a and
a homographs of each other, in that
a refers to 25, and
a refers to 26. This happens all the time;
plane refers to both
aeroplane and
an infinite, two-dimensional, flat manifold.
Now,
faith and
religious belief are symbols, just like
a. And like
a in my example, these two words have pre-established definitions. Many, in fact. If you were to decide on some measure of representativity, one definition would be the most descriptively correct. Now, when you start speaking of
faith and
religious belief, like in the paragraph I quoted at the top, are you
redefining them here (1)? Or, are you
describing these words, following some extra-textual definition, one perhaps previously established or assumed to exist in most people's heads (2)?
To be extra clear, when you say
faith is an act of liberation, are you saying:
Faith
Act of liberation, and ... (1)
Or, are you saying:
Faith
Act of liberation, and ... (2)
The former is your definition, which you can follow up with descriptions thereof. The latter is a claim about someone else's definitions(s) and the consequences thereof.