Belief that is the self consciousness of human being is the subject of this paper, which argues that the expressing modes, structures and characters of belief have undergone significant changes as the relations and contradictions between man and the world evolved. According to the author, the first social mode was characterized by the dependence on man and the belief was the self consciousness of human beings that had not come to themselves, and expressed itself in the form of nature worship or authority worship which mingled truth and values. The second social mode is characterized by the autonomy of human beings who base on things. In such a social mode, belief may be regarded as the confronting and splitting state of the self consciousness of human beings who had come to themselves but lost themselves later, and particularly as the antagonisms between value pursuits and truth pursuits as well as between religious belief and scientific belief. In the author′s view, it is only in the third social mode, the communist social mode, that seeks mankind′s all round development and the freedom of personality, the splitting state of the self consciousness of human being, as well as the antagonisms between knowledge and faith, truth and values, science and religion, and rationality and irrationality, can be expected to be finally overcome. According to the author, the road to this aim will be long and necessarily accompanied by various value crisis and credibility crisis. So, to investigate into the deep roots of contemporary human credibility crisis is one of our important theoretical and practical tasks.
