LenKen: Did I miss something?  Did anyone actually say faith was useless.  Considering that you’ve put the word “useless” in quotes, I’m assuming you’re quoting someone.

Zach: Usually when a person puts one word or a small phrase in to quotes without indicating the author of the quote, they are using that word or phrase for lack of a better word or phrase, or they are using it tongue in cheek.  This is my experience.
 
LenKen: I’m familiar with that particular use of quotation marks—I sometimes use them that way, myself, as a matter of fact.  It just seemed, in the context in which he was using it, that Señor Aronesty was quoting someone.  Well, that’s what it seemed like after a few glasses of wine, anyway. 
_____________

LenKen: But to have faith in things like God, Satan, Santa Claus, pixies, fairies, leprechauns, life after death, or the healing power of crystals is just silly.

Zach: So you think it is wise to have faith in things that, through repeated experience, have proven themselves to have a high probability in repeating themselves again. I can buy this, I actuallyy do buy this, it one of the cornerstones of my philosophy on life. I have a few questions though.
     Does this extend to other peoples experiences? I mean do you have faith that Japan, assuming that you haven't been there repeatedly, exist? If yes, why do you have this faith?
 
LenKen: Hmm . . . I just so happen to have a friend who’s currently living in Japan.  Or so he claims. 
_____________
 
Zach: Do you have faith in things because of their explanatory properties? Do you believe the universe is made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons? Have you ever seen one of these things? What about physical forces?
     If a person has had repeated experiences with transcendental/supernatural entities and/or forces...ie God, Satan, Fairies, Aliens, and the like, should that person have faith in these entities/forces, or should that person commit himself to a mental institution, because those entities don't positively correlate with commonly perceived reality? But, how can that person know that it is not commonly perceived, he only has his perceptions, and the human perceptions tell him he is crazy, but the fairy
perceptions, that are just as common, to him, as the humans, tell him that most humans are just not connected with the higher level realities?

LenKen: But comparing belief in protons, neutrons, and electrons with belief in Satan, Santa, and the supernatural is comparing apples and kumquats.  As Dawkins and many other scientists have pointed out, science doesn’t rely on faith (with the possible exception of string theory)—it relies on rigorous experimentation, observation, et cetera.  I, personally, tend to rely on science and pragmatism to decide what’s probably true.  Back when I was flirting with logical positivism, I used to be overly optimistic about what could be known for certain and what would forever remain unknown.  But I have since acquired a smidgeon of humility in the epistemology department.  I think there’s a lot of truth to the old saying: “Scratch a pragmatist and you’ll find a logical positivist with a broken heart.”  (Well, I don’t know if that’s really an old saying, but I’m pretty sure I heard it somewhere). 
 
 
 
’Tis better to have loved and lost
than never to have known what it’s like
to have sex with someone besides yourself.  —LenKen, Esq.