It's a question of Bona Fide. If you say "I believe" we should be able to assume that you do believe so. Meaning you would be willing to bet on it being true. I

It's a question of Bona Fide. If you say "I believe" we should be able to assume that you do believe so. Meaning you would be willing to bet on it being true. If you don't then that is bad faith on your part, which will not help the rest of us. Of course with some people you would assume that they are only pretending to believe but that means simply that you don't trust them generally. People who use "believe" when they should say "I pretend to believe" should not be trusted, and are not trusted when it becomes clear what they are up to. Like say pretending to believe that vaccines are bad and not helpful and then getting the vaccine yourself.