Hi,
From: joe dees <joedees@bellsouth.net>
<<
At first blush, "I trust you with my life" seems to be stronger than
"I have faith in you with my life." Or is there some sort of obscure
definitional difference or category error here?
>>
Well, I for one am having difficulty understanding the latter sentence. "I have faith in you with my life"? It's like the modifier doesn't really apply, or perhaps like the statement already implicitly includes the modifier.
Removing the modifier, I think that "I trust you with my life" and "I have faith in you" are of roughly comparable strength, with the modified trust perhaps a smidgen stronger.
It was still a good try, lets see if I can find a modifier which *will* invert their relative strengths.
I trust you utterly vs I have utter faith in you. (utter faith is so strong it's scary)
I have the utmost confidence in your abilities vs I have the utmost faith in your skill. (again, I would say that the former is as strong as a simple "I have faith in your abilities", and the modifier hardly makes sense)
See to it that my trust is not misplaced! vs See to it that my faith in you is justified! (seems to place them on about the same level, with faith maybe having a small strength lead)
Anyway, I could play this game all day. Is anybody else game to try?
ERiC