I believe in belief - or rather, I have faith in having faith. Yet I am an atheist... so, how can that be?
It is important to have faith, but not necessarily in God. Faith is important far beyond the realm of religion: having faith in oneself, in other people, in the existence of truth and justice. There is a continuum of faith, from the basic everyday trust in others to the grand devotion to divine entities.
Recent advances in behavioral sciences, such as experimental economics and game theory, demonstrate that having faith is a common human attitude toward the world. Faith is vital in human interactions; it is no coincidence that the anchoring of behaviour in risky trust is emphasized in systems of thought as diverse as Soren Kierkegaard's existentialist Christianity and modern theories of bargaining behaviour in economic interactions. Both stress the importance of inner, subjective conviction as the basis for action, the feeling of an inner glow.
Tor Norretranders, What We Believe but Cannot Prove, pp.46-47
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