There is no way to speak generally about belief. One such attempt at speaking generally states that belief is a mental representation of a sentient being's attitude toward the likelihood or truth of something. This notion of belief may represent a secularized common sense, but clashes violently with, for instant, the philosopher Martin Heidegger which in a passage concerning presence and presence in the representation of representing “We cannot scientifically prove the translation nor ought we simply by virtue of any authority trust in it (glauben). The reach of proof is too short. Belief has no place in thinking (Der Glaube hat im Denken keinen Platz) The one notion excludes the other. From Greek two different concepts are often represented by the concept of belief: Pistis and Doxa. Simplified we may say that the first deals in trust and confidence, the latter in opinion and acceptance.
