There would be a lot less quarreling and invective in the world if there were less confusion. We human beings, diverse as we are, are more alike than we often realize. But we have a strange proclivity to isolate elements that belong to a greater whole and then launch an artificial war between absolutized fragments. Even doubt and belief co-exist in the same person. Nor is the atheist free of all belief.
Science depends on faith far more than is generally assumed.
The scientist must make an initial act of faith that the world to which he applies reason is one whose laws are both intelligible and consistent. He must believe, or else he would lose heart and fear that the laws of the universe are like the croquet game in Alice in Wonderland, where the rules of the game change from moment to moment by the arbitrary decree of the Queen. When Albert Einstein confessed that what was most incomprehensible for him was the fact that the universe is comprehensible, he was alluding to the same need for faith. The laws of the universe are a fit object for human reason, but the reality of this affinity between mind and world, itself a mystery, demands the scientist's faithful allegiance. We need reason for the mind to discover the laws of the universe, but we need a preliminary faith that these laws will not betray us.