Razd, Very interesting post and very excellent points, and very well laid out.
I will not read all posts (simply too many).
I just want to add something to faith. I am a Christian, and therefore I have faith in God.
Sometimes people mistake faith with an idea of ignorance. But faith is something based on knowledge. Those circles RazD made on his first posts is exactly how I view it. We have science in the middle which is what we observe and test (everyone is a scientists to a certain extent, think of little babies trying to chew and eat everything, they are testing and making conclusions, and we build on that and continually test using our senses).
An example;
Most of us drive cars, or bikes. Why? they are a safe mode of transportation. But we also know that there is a chance of dying in an accident. But we do not stop driving cars based on this fact. We keep driving because we have faith that we will arrive safely at our location. If you believe other wise, you wouldnt be driving the car.
Is driving a car ignorance when you know that you might die? No, because the faith is
based on observable evidence that the risks associated with driving a vehicle is very low.
So, faith is a combination of knowing and believing. (Know the risks, believe you are safe).
So all in all, faith needs to be based on some facts, or, scientific grounds. Faith just takes these scientific grounds and extends them to a proposition or conclusion that makes sense for the individual.