We're not talking about faith here, we are attempting to discern the highest truth. To an atheist, his level of faith tells him that God does not exist. That is his belief system. Yet, if in fact God does exist, does the disbelief of the atheist in any way affect the reality that God exists ? Does God much care for the opinion of atheists ? No, and it would be ludicrous to think so. Therefore, reality transcends belief systems and faith, although, in fact, Reality cannot be approached without some degree of faith. But not blind faith, reasoned faith, faith that is questioned and proven and validated through one's own experience and the shared experience of others, also on the path of transcendence. Gita talks about the different levels of faith according to the modes of material nature that each person finds himself in, but the Truth transcends all the modes of nature. The Truth is spotless and pristine and is known as the all-good Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. Men in lower modes of nature worship the demigods or even sometimes ghosts and spirits. Fundamentalists, below even the level of neophyte religious practitioners with some level of genuine faith, are such demons that they even rationalize killing other people of other religions. My definition of a demon is that a demon, in order to further his own ends, does not care how much pain and suffering he inflicts on others. Demonism should NEVER be confused with genuine religious faith. Religious faith, by definition, must be compassionate and uplifting, not destructive. If the demonic sub-neophytes are so right on, why don't they preach by example and compassion rather than by wanton and indiscriminate slaughter ? They are so incredibly ignorant and indiscriminating that they even kill each other. In no manner do they have what could be called genuine religious faith. Yes, their "faith," as you call it, is simply misused, misconstrued, malicious, misguided, mistaken and illusory.
jeffster/AM das