Does it annoy you when people ask if you "believe in" things like gay marriage, abortion, premarital sex? To me "believing in" something means having faith in its existence, like believing in fairies or God.

your diction is on the ball--but do you believe in good diction?

Not at all..the choice of words is not as important to me as the underlying intent...I take that to mean do I approve, accept, condone or otherwise sanction. Sometimes people's choice of words leave something to be desired..but if you try to understand what that person is trying to communicate, then isn't that what is really important? Why equivocate or nit-pick? :)

No, I can understand this, because I have encountered this already. Here some usage examples:

1) "Verb
S: (v) believe (accept as true; take to be true) "I believed his report"; "We didn't believe his stories from the War"; "She believes in spirits"
S: (v) think, believe, consider, conceive (judge or regard; look upon; judge) "I think he is very smart"; "I believe her to be very smart"; "I think that he is her boyfriend"; "The racist conceives such people to be inferior"
S: (v) believe, trust (be confident about something) "I believe that he will come back from the war"
S: (v) believe (follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer) "When you hear his sermons, you will be able to believe, too"
S: (v) believe (credit with veracity) "You cannot believe this man"; "Should we believe a publication like the National Enquirer?" "
Source and further information:
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=believe

"Verb
S: (v) believe in (have a firm conviction as to the goodness of something) "John believes in oat bran""
Source and further information:
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=believe%20in


2) "to believe (third-person singular simple present believes, present participle believing, simple past and past participle believed)

(transitive) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
Why did I ever believe you?
(transitive) To accept as true.
If you believe the numbers, you'll agree we need change.
(transitive) To consider likely.
I believe it might rain tomorrow.
(intransitive) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
After that night in the church, I believed.

- Usage notes
The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb believe in are similar but can have very different implications.
To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news, believe the lead witness. To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence.
To “believe in” someone or something means to place faith in that person or concept: believe in liberty, believe in God. To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place faith in mankind.
Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in a religious text would also require affirming at least the major principles. To believe a religious text would likewise imply placing one's faith in it."
Source and further information:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/believe


3) What annoys me more, are questions like "Do you believe in creation or in evolution?"
You may believe in creation, but you don't have to believe in evolution, evolution is just the only meaningful way to explain scientific evidence in the moment where you accept to use scientific method.
The problem is to assume the same kind of belief for two very different things.

As far as believing in this or that.

I believe it happens because it does.

Do I support it?

no.

but then again if I have sex out of wedlock, I can tell that it is not a good act, because there is no profit in it except the feeling of the sensations during sex.

It's becoming less enjoyable for me, because while have sex I'm like whats the point. It seems like it will be so great but when Its over it's like this is it.

Sex in general I think is a concept, and thats what thrills us so much, not the sex but the idea of having it. Sex is possesiveness, I have sex right. Well so what, there is virtually no gain in it.

Sex is a mess in humanity, it's the cause of so much wrong behavior.

It happens so I believe it, but at the same time i don't think it will go on forever, therefore whats so great about it. It's mortal attacment to sensation, which is a an illusion. It is not important at all.

I believe you might be right.

I know what you mean, and also you could agree with something but not participate. Like it may not be the right thing for YOU but you wouldn't necessarily condemn someone else because it's for them.

Well, what about "agree with"? You can't exactly agree with abortion, because abortion hasn't said anything that is it's opinion.

Many things annoy me. This being only slightly.

What terminology do you want to use? I think you beleive is a much weaker term than "have faith". I believe that my team will win the league - means I hope. I believe in freedom of speech - I think it is a human right. I believe it is going to rain tomorrow - I have heard a forcast from a usually reliable source that said so. I believe in the American Future - completely meaningless. "Believe" has too many meanings in common usage to be forced into the straitjacket you want it to be.

I think when people ask you if you believe in things like that they are asking you if you agree with with them.

Yes it annoys me, too.
I thought I was the only one that noticed how incorrect that was ;)

But I can believe in being polite, democracy, truth, motherhood and apple pie. I think these usages are the same as believing in gay marriage etc. Or would you say that you do not believe in democracy? In this sense, which is widespread, "believe in" means "believe to be a good thing". You may or may not use this form yourself, but enough people do that it can be said to be one of the phrase's conventional meanings.

it bothers me because most the time when someone is asking me this they are looking for an arguement because frankly i don't care is two girls/guys get married yea for them. and abortion is none of my business if you have one nor is it your business if i have one. and if you do not have premarital sex i would love to meet you and shake your hand. and i support this issues i don't believe in them

All uses of that phrase annoy me equally.

yeah it does but not because of the word BELIEVE just because it annoys me