Abstract
It is common to hear people speak of a religious man as a "man of faith", as if faith and religion were two synonyms. It is true that speaking of a person's religion assumes speaking of their faith, the degree at which they believe in their religion. However, faith is not the only implication of religion from the human mind's perspective. In fact, if faith exists, it is in contrast with doubt, which exists, too. These two words, faith and doubt, seem to be semantically opposed.
The first one seems to appeal to a belief that is self-sufficient (in the sense that it does not need certainty to sustain itself), intuitive, hopeful, and confident in the existence of an ultimate truth which is metaphysical but which is extremely influential in the world of physical reality. The second one, doubt, is rather complex as it can ben understood in different ways -not that faith cannot; it can, too.
The aim of this paper is to invesigate the compatibility between faith and doubt in two very old religions, one of the Middle-East, Judaism, and one from the Far-East, Buddhism.
