What is the most basic article of faith? This is not all that we are

This is such an interesting statement (and it reappears toward the end of the series in "The Road Less Travelled") that I contacted a friend of mine who is a theologian (Catholic, no less). Since I couldn't summarize my friend's remarks in 10 words or less, I decided to replicate the discussion here. I offered to cite my friend by name, but the offer was turned down.

Me:

There is a line in Battlestar Galactica: "What is the most basic tenet of faith? This is not all that we are." (I know, it should be "article" not "tenet" but I don't think the mistake has any significant effect on her answer.)

Can you provide any insight into that statement and how it may reflect

Choose one:

a. Some

b. All

c. No

religious belief systems?

Theologian Pal's answer:

Interesting.  I think I'll choose to answer "a. some" and also "b. all."  I guess one could claim that some (most) if not all belief systems/religions/faith traditions would assert that "this is not all that we are," meaning that human beings are more than the accidental if complicated end of specific evolutionary processes.

So, I'm guessing that "this is not all that we are" is meant to refer to a faith based claim that human beings are more than meets the eye, perhaps possessing some non-material aspect (i.e.  a soul or something similar.)  If that's what is meant by the claim, then it would be congruent with: the major monotheistic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) as well as the harder to classify Hinduism and also Buddhism, and you could also make the case that it applies to non-theistic traditions, like some native American belief systems, or African tribal ancestor worship (and pantheism.)

It's possible that this sentence is really a tautology since "faith" could be defined as belief in something not evident to the senses, i.e. "not all that we are."

What's slightly odd about how the claim is phrased is that it's referent is anthropological and not cosmological.  IT would be a little more standard to claim faith in something beyond human life (a claim about the cosmos) than to state in the negative that human life is not all that we are, and anthropocentric way of making a faith claim - I think.