Isn't there always faith?

Question

Isn't there faith required for everything?

I have faith that I'll be alive tomorrow to go to work

I have faith I won't slip and fall while climbing a set of stairs

Last of all, I have faith that when I do a science experiment, the scientific laws that regulate and affect that experiment are the same today as they were a month, a year, or a million years ago, and will remain the same in the future.

Science relies on a certain level of faith in itself, so why do people criticize religion for requiring faith?

Answer 1

Only if you wish to redefine faith.

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By your definition, none of the things you mentioned require faith.

There is a difference between faith and reasonable assumption based on past experience.

Answer 2

You have some issues in your argument.  First, you are trying to justify faith by saying that science can't prove a future state.  bad reasoning here. Until a future state becomes the present state, nothing can prove it.  Science, however does a fine job of predicting it given the necessary data.

Second, despite your definition of faith at the end, you use the term quite differently in your argument.  In your argument, you are using faith to mean "a degree of trust or certainty based on available facts."

you have 'faith' that you will be alive tomorrow because you know facts about your health and habits, and because you were alive today.

You have 'faith' that you won't slip and fall because you know facts about stairs and your general faculty for climbing them.

you have 'faith' that scientific laws remain the same because you have a wealth of data showing that they do.

faith, as you are using it, is an application of reason.  It bears no resemblance to religious Faith, which presents itself as a counterpoint to reason.

Answer 3

Many people will criticize anything they don't agree with.  

YA is a perfect example. You're right, faith (and hope) are part of life.

Answer 4

It's a sense issue...not common sense but physical sense.  The only way some people are able to acknowledge something has substance is if they can see, hear, taste, smell and/or touch it.  It is a task far more complex than being able to walk by faith and not by sight.