Does confidence=faith in Science? (Guardian)

[Cinjin]

So who gets to define what faith is. I agree with your post, except the no portion, because I (as a peson with faith in God and faith in science) define faith as in 1 and 2, regardless of the topic (which is where 3 fails. It completely restricts the topic to theology).

My humble opinion ... no one party ever need to define faith. Let the definition apply to the way the statement is used by the party in question.

Fictional Example 1:
1st Party: Every US dollar is faith-backed.
2nd Party: Every US dollar is backed by the gold standard.
In this case neither party truly defines faith. The statement itself defines faith and the 2nd party must concede that "faith" in this case, has no religious implications. The statement qualifies it's own definition. It's self-defining.

Ex. 2
1st party: I have great faith that science will find a cure for tuberculosis.
2nd party: I have faith that god will show us a cure for tuberculosis.
Here again, both statements qualify their own definition. In this case, if the 2nd party claims that the term faith means the same thing for both Parties - than it is clear to me that Party 2 has broken the rule of self-defining statements and has clearly assigned a definition and attached it to the 1st Party. This handicap's the 1st Party unfairly, in favor of the 2nd Party's own agenda.
For a religious group to say, "see, those atheists have faith too ... they just said it themselves", is a blatant twisting of words and a useful yet still illegitimate means to an end.

According to the dictionary, the use of the word defines itself and any party wishing to redefine it is highly suspect ... at least in my mind.