<p>“I think being comfortable with uncertainty requires more strength and sophistication than accepting a lot of important things on faith, but that doesn’t make faith necessary, and it certainly doesn’t make the beliefs that people defend through faith true. At most, it makes them convenient.”</p>
<p>I agree completely with the first part of your statement. Being comfortable with uncertainty is important. That being said, I don’t think you have the same idea of faith that I have. I’m not saying that it’s okay to disregard fact and accept things out of convenience, which is what you seem to think I am saying. I also definitely did not say that “beliefs people defend through faith are true”.</p>
<p>Here’s what I did say: Faith is essential for happiness. I am guessing from your comments that you are not religious and that’s fine… I am not referencing specifically religion when I say faith.</p>
<p>Faith is the base point of your life. At the very least, you need to have faith in yourself. Someone who has no faith in him/herself is going to have a very hard time finding happiness… lack of faith in self leads to second guessing which can lead to failure which in turn leads back to lack of faith in self… a horrible cycle. It’s also very good to have faith in someone or something other than yourself–a significant other, for example. I know that I want to have faith in my wife (if/when I get married in the future) to love me and take care of me. </p>
<p>Cliff notes: Faith does not equal religion. Faith = belief, confidence, trust. In fact, the number 1 definition of faith according to dictionary.com is</p>
<p>“Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.” </p>
<p>I think that the large majority of happy people do have faith according to the above defintion.</p>