@Cyracuz,
I'll default to the definition i provided earlier (the first "hit" in a google search):
Quote:Estimate or suppose (something) without sufficient information to be sure of being correct.
Other than in cases of blind faith, people who believe something do so because they consider that there is sufficient information. Even in the case of what most of us would call blind faith, the people involved are not "guessing." As i said earlier, one does not wake up one day and say to themselves: "I guess there is a god! I guess i must be a Lutheran!" For however much we may wish to call them deluded, their conclusion is based on what they were taught as children, and the consensus of the community of which they are a part. They are not engaged in guessing. I don't consider it at all plausible to describe beliefs, whether arrived at through conditioning, or the consideration of evidence, to be guessing. You also ignore the context of Frank making these assertions about "guesses" as a response to having been hammered in debate, and thinking that that would be a clever polemical tool (which it is not). The example i provided about traffic lights, for however much people may sneer about it, is exactly to the point. We believe, without knowing to a certainty, that it is safe to proceed through an intersection when the lights are in our favor because our experience tells us that it's safe, and our experience also tells us that people overwhelmingly observe traffic regulation. That's not guessing.
The number one definition at Dictionary-dot-com: to arrive at or commit oneself to an opinion about (something) without having sufficient evidence to support the opinion fully:
to guess a person's weight.
The two part number one definition at Answers-dot-com: To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.
To assume, presume, or assert (a fact) without sufficient information.
The number one definition at Merriam-Webster-dot-com: to form an opinion of from little or no evidence.
(In fairness, the number two definiton at M-W is: : believe, suppose <
I guess you're right> . . . but note that this refers to supposition, and not any evidentiary process.)
Although, with sneering scorn, one might refer to some beliefs as guesses, guess is not an acceptable synonym for belief, and the primary definition of guess at all sources i found clearly refers to little or no evidence. There are many, many beliefs that people arrive at for which they have evidence, or for which they are convinced that there is evidence. They are not guessing in their own opinion, and often with good reason.
