Re: The war on faith.
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By definition, to believe something on faith is irrational and immoral.
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This is silly. Edward Witten, possibly the smartest man on the planet, believes that string theory is correct. He does so despite having no experimental evidence to back up his belief that his assumptions are right. He has *faith* that the theory is right because it describes phenemena in our universe remarkably well. In his opinion, because the math is so symmetric and beautiful and the physics works out so well, it is unlikely that the theory works by mere coincidence. However, because there is no experimental evidence to verify the assumptions, it is possible that an equally (or more) valid and more accurate model for particle physics is out there, and that string theory is "wrong".
The direction Witten's research goes is dependent in large part on faith. His faith just happens to have a more logical foundation than a religious fanatic's that somehow distorts their religion to make suicide bombing "correct".
However, saying that believing in something on faith is "irrational and immoral" is wrong. Everyone has faith in something.
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