Understanding the difference between our beliefs and our knowledge is critical to an understanding of Truth. This is critical because Truth is the foundation for our moral compass. Let's take a look at the difference between belief and knowledge.
To understand the difference between belief and knowledge we need to understand how each is defined. Beliefs, are those things that we personally understand to be True but may not actually be True. As such, our opinions, personal testimony, and anecdotal evidence all fall within this category. Belief is not a choice. Belief is an involuntary action occurring after our own internal standard for evidence has been met. Belief is the necessary result of being convinced. It is important to recognize that our own internal standard of evidence is not equivalent to scientific (actual) evidence. Lastly, knowledge is a subset of belief.
Knowledge is defined as the small fraction of our beliefs that actually meet the scientific standard of evidence. As such, knowledge represents the small fraction of our beliefs that are actually True. Therefore knowledge is by definition "True beliefs".
As mentioned previously, knowledge is a subset of Truth. The absolute Truth of things don't change whether we have knowledge of it or not. Alternatively, our own awareness of the Truth can change as we obtain more knowledge. Because of this, the apparent Truth (from our perspective) can change with time. Truth is the objective standard for morality. This last point is an idea which will be addressed in other posts.
In a Venn Diagram, these ideas would be illustrated as follows:
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