Christian "faith" vs. plain "faith"

[watchamadoodle]

An atheist's "faith" is really just a verbal shorthand for the confidence in something based on a combination of factors: past results in similar situations, the inherent qualities of the thing/event itself, probability, and perhaps even the character of the people involved. It's incompatible with the idea of blind faith, which is why it's so tiring when theists try the "your faith in science or whatever is just like my faith in god!" thing. No, it's not. Not even close.

Is blind faith actually possible? IMO, Christians have faith for bad reasons, but they do not have blind faith. Nobody can simply choose to have blind faith as many Christians claim.

However there is a difference with Christian faith. When I was little, my father told me that if I could put salt on a bird's tail then he couldn't fly away and I could keep him as a pet. I remember being very incredulous, but I believed my father and tried hunting birds with a salt shaker. That was just as silly as believing in Christianity, but there was one difference - if I had ever successfully salted a bird's tail and he flew away, then I would have falsified the claim. It is much harder to falsify many Christian claims, because the Lord works in mysterious ways.