Many faiths

Faith. It's such a loaded and emotional word for many primates, but what does it really mean? 

For me it's just a simple short-hand for expressing hope that something is going to happen. I think the key difference between this definition and the religious kind is that I would only subscribe to something if there was sufficient evidence that what I was hoping for was actually likely to happen.

Some would argue that the word "faith" implies belief in or hope for something with no evidence or perhaps even, despite the evidence. In the religious usage of the word this might well be true, it certainly seems that way for most of them. On the other hand when I say something like "I have faith in the people I work with", it's not because I have some fluffy, emotional or "spiritual" connection to them but because in the past they have proven (many times) to be competent and I have no reason to believe that will change. I suppose I would use the word faith in everyday language to substitute for the word "trust" whereas in a religious setting it seems to have completely different connotations. 

Language is such an imperfect method of communication.