A person accepts that a claim is true and orients life around that acceptance. Belief is that mental and practical commitment. In religion it often concerns realities that cannot be fully verified by ordinary observation.

Beliefs range from the existence of God to the efficacy of prayer, the authority of scripture, and the moral order of the universe. They can be held with varying degrees of confidence and examined with varying degrees of critical attention. Communities transmit beliefs through teaching, ritual, and example.

Philosophers distinguish belief from knowledge and from mere opinion. Psychologists study how beliefs form, persist, and change under social influence or personal crisis. Religious traditions frequently treat right belief as essential to salvation or liberation, while also warning against empty intellectual assent without corresponding action.

What a person truly believes eventually shows in what that person loves and fears.