Faith Is Not A Virtue

Contrary to the religious meme, faith is NOT a virtue.  It is the mindless accepting of claims unsupported by evidence.  It is a lazy way to understand reality: no questioning, no inquiry, no use of the brain's capacity.  John Loftus, in the Oct/Nov 2017 "Free Inquiry" magazine, talks about faith as well as anyone:

"Faith is an irrational leap over the need for evidence. Faith has no intellectual merit. It is not a virtue. It has no method. It solves no problems. It is not worthy of thinking people. Religion does not survive the requirement for sufficient objective evidence precisely because it is based on faith."

ALL dictionary definitions of "Faith" exclude consideration of objective evidence. (link) Also, many people conflate "Faith" with "Trust", and there is some justification for such. However, common usage of the term "trust" includes trusting people BECAUSE a person has OBJECTIVELY DEMONSTRATED that he or she is trustworthy. (link)