[sjwright]

> Without faith you could not accept any scientific conclusion

Nonsense. I don't need faith to assign various claims varying degrees of trust and confidence.

[stephen_g]

Perhaps we're just arguing semantics, but I think that is a large part of exactly what faith is!

Or perhaps you just dislike the term because it's often used in a religious context?

[sjwright]

You might be arguing semantics, but I'm not. I see a gulf of difference between any definition of "faith" and how I derive confidence in science.

No definition of faith I'm aware of relates to confidence based on weight of evidence, or balance of probabilities.

To use your example of pharmaceutical efficacy, I take a pill with the expectation that it will elicit results comparable to its stated claim. I hope that it works. I'm happy if it does work. But my worldview won't be shattered if it doesn't.