What we mean by faith is well stated in Wikipedia.

Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. The word "faith" can refer to a religion itself or to religion in general. As with "trust", faith involves a concept of future events or outcomes, and is used conversely for a belief "not resting on logical proof or material evidence." Informal usage of the word "faith" can be quite broad, and may be used in place of "trust" or "belief." For other uses, see Faith (disambiguation).

I see faith as part of how we organize ourselves. It is essentially a personal choice. Those who seem clever (Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins) or holy (fundamentalists) by their arguments for or against are missing the point. Last year I had the notion that we should reconcile science and religion, and now, happily, several writers have done our work for us.

• The Religious Wars, by Nicholas D. Kristof, 11/26/09
• A Truce in the Religious Wars?, by Nicholas Kristof, 11/25/09
• review of The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong, Perpetual Revelations, by Ross Douthat, 10/4/09
• A Look at Christianity, Through a Buddhist Lens, by Peter Steinfels, 10/10/09
• The Faith Instinct, by Nicholas Wade, 11/15/09