What is "FAITH"

[Esquilax]

really well said!! You have totally spoken my mind This is exactly what I tried to convey in the OP, also what do you think is the best way to work around this, when having an argument with a theist. When the concept of Faith kicks in, no further argument can take place, because faith essentially denies absence of proof for god's existence as a valid argument against religion.

It depends on who you're talking to. For some, faith really will be the end of the issue for them; it's good enough for them, it's not good enough for you, and they don't really care. In those cases they've essentially admitted defeat in the argument, and it's best to probably end things as nicely as you can, because that isn't going to end well.

For those who actually care about the truth, just point out that faith can be used to justify essentially any position, if you give it credence as a justification in and of itself. If it can be used as a reason for anything, then it's probably not a reason to believe something at all; ask them what makes their faith more true than the faith of someone in another religion. All religions have faith and most of them prize faith as a virtue, so the question that needs to be asked is, whose faith is misplaced, and why?

Faith alone can't answer that, you need something more. This leads to a set of other questions; what should we use to verify who is putting their faith in the right place? If faith can be used simultaneously as a justification for christian beliefs and muslim beliefs, two mutually exclusive propositions, then how can it be a justification at all? Stuff like that.

It's actually fairly easy to lead a theist back to the requirement for evidence for their claims, so long as they're willing to be reasonable about it.