Kevin Solway writes:

> "... it is important that one looks before one
> takes a leap of faith.  That is, it is important
> that one knows exactly what one is doing, and
> what the consequences will be, before one does it."

The interchange between Therese Foote and Kevin Solway
about the "what" and the "how" of faith, about faith
as a decision, as a "leap", as a deliberate act whose
consequences are susceptible to advance calculation, 
seems to me, in its reliance on decision analysis,
to be an illuminating parody of (contemporary) economic
theory.

The presumption that one "decides" to believe, that one
"decides" to have faith, that makes a deliberate "leap"
of faith is no stronger than the presumption that one has
the freedom to make these decisions. The arguments for
and against freedom of the will are nicely summarized by
Schopenhauer in his essay: Preisschrift ueber die Freiheit
des Willens, 1839. On a cloudless summer's day, does one
decide to believe that the sun is shining, does one decide
to believe the sky is blue, does one decide to believe
that the birds are singing? Or are the brightness of the
sun, the blueness of the sky, the singing of the birds so
immediate, that it is meaningless to presume to interpose
a voluntary decision to affirm or deny their reality?
Should we conceive of deity as being less immediate than
these? Doubtlessly there as are many species of faith as
there are human beings.  As I understand it, for me, the
faith that requires deliberation or choice is no faith at
all.

Ernst Meyer