Faith is a belief, trust, or confidence, not based on logic, reason, or empirical data, but based fundamentally on volition often associated with a transpersonal relationship with God, a higher power, a person, elements of nature, and/or a perception of the human race as a whole. Faith can be placed in a person, inanimate object, state of affairs, proposition or body of propositions such as a religious creed.

Faith is distinct from hope in that faith is typically general, rather than specific to an aspect, and in contrast to a "false hope" in a fantasy, the object of faith typically transcends what can be proven scientifically and sometimes exceeds what can be objectively defined. Faith can mean believing unconditionally. It can be acceptance of something that one has been told by one who is considered trustworthy. Faith, by its very nature, requires belief outside of known fact. Faith is formed through instinct, intuition, meditation, communing with nature, prayer, or perceived usefulness of a belief system.

The raison d' etre for faith seems to lie in the fact that to some who have attained to a sufficient depth of it, it 'works' in lieu of, or even in addition to, rational reason, logic and science. In other words, faith and reason to some are 'inimical' while, to some others, both work in their respective spheres and in particular sets of circumstances.