I do not see I have declined, it was in the opening OP, the quote gives the concept. "All humanity must obtain a livelihood by sweat of the brow and bodily exertion, at the same time seeking to lift the burden of others, striving to be the source of comfort to souls and facilitating the means of living. This in itself is devotion to God. Bahá’u’lláh has thereby encouraged action and stimulated service." So it is offered if a person in life lives by that advice, then that in itself is faith based actions, even if that is not acknowledged.
That's not a definition of faith. It's not a definition of any kind. Nor was I aware that you thought it was.
Looking at the last 2-3 pages of this thread, I saw multiple posters telling you the same. A definition is a group of words (definiendum) that can substitute for the word or phrase being defined (definiens). So, a definition of atheist is one with no belief in gods. I can rewrite the sentence, "I ran into someone who was an atheist" as, "I ran into somebody with no belief in gods" by simple substitution.
What makes you think that I have respect for unjustifiable faith?
The phrase I used was unjustified belief, which is a chief definition of faith, another being justified belief, and a third being a system of religious belief such as the Baha'i faith. None of these are actions, which your definition emphasizes.
The definition closest to a behavior would be the one that is meant by good or bad faith, since "acted in" often precedes it, but still, it is the state of mind that leads to that behavior that is being referred to.
And finally, Faith is a girls name, and just as you would be inviting ambiguity and confusion into your home if you named and called two daughters Faith, we see this same ambiguity and chaos when we call both justified and unjustified belief by the same name, which is why I explained that I only call unjustified belief faith to avoid that.
I don't think you support unjustified belief, at least not knowingly, although to me, religious beliefs are that if they include gods and afterlives. I assume that you consider those beliefs justified.
"The Essence of Faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds". Baha'u'llah. That will be the definition I use now.
People will still not understand what you mean when you write faith. Christians go out of their way to distinguish between what they call faith and works. You conflate them, and put the emphasis on the works, the same behavior seen in some people with no faith, just empathy and benevolence.
Furthermore, your definition doesn't address faith in wrong ideas.
An undesirable consequence of calling faith what others would call good will or volunteerism is that you barely got to discuss whatever it is that you had in mind when you started this thread. Instead, you were contending with the confusion caused by your use of the word faith.
