In the beginning, faith substituted for man’s lack of analytical tools and frameworks.

Advanced tools now leave the essence of modern faith a simple, fierce dedication to ignorance.

Faith’s main opponents are no longer Evil and Mystery. The new enemy is reality and reality never sleeps.

It seeps into mental cracks as nagging doubt, which like an intermittent noisy cricket trapped in your dark bedroom, refuses all attempts to ignore it. Delicate ice gently destroying a massive boulder with gentle pressure over enormous time.

Faith is an intentional recurring choice over doubt, and honestly investigating these residual doubts is a fearsome personal challenge. At any point, a tiny doubt might avalanche into a compelling certainty, making attempts at resetting impossible. Some thoughts simply cannot be un-thought.

The certainty that faith provides is every bit as real as the courage alcohol provides, both coming at the expense of adult judgment. It's not easy to be realistic... not when tempting bedtime stories promise endless reward, but it's just moral gluttony... consumption of high calorie mental junk food.