iam not sure i follow the first paragraph do you mind rephrasing

your right about hope but you statement about faith does not logicaly follow - it should read you have every reason to believe what you have faith in will happen this follows the logical thought process of what you hope happens does not necassarly happen. I also I agree with the statment reworded as such. I do not hope a dollar has economic value but I do have complete faith in the dollar having said value. If I didnt have this faith, in fact if I only hoped that the dollar had value, we would be in alot of trouble.

Have you ever taken any economics classes?

I've heard it said that no one is an atheist on their deathbed. I suppose that would be hard, staring into the great unknown and trying to think that you're about to completely cease to be...

I don't know if I'd call atheism a "lack of faith," so much as an acceptence of reason.

sure, let me try to rephrase the first paragraph. you say that we have faith in everything since nothing can be proven absolutely (faith implies that you don't have proof. you can't have faith in something you know to be true.) i counter that by saying that you can believe something without absolute proof if you are given a reasonable amount of proof. take evolution for instance. some are satisfied with the amount of proof, and believe it. others are not. nobody should be satisfied with the amount of proof given by christianity - least of all christians. proving christianity is kinda like watching those shows that explain how magic tricks work.

as for the second, thing, you and i are simply inverting what we mean by faith and hope. for me, hope means "it would benefit me but is up to chance" whereas faith means "it may or may not benefit me and is not up to chance". so you can never really have faith in your dollar being worth anything... for one, it can't be bad for you, and it is most certainly up to chance as to how much it's worth. the ice-cream man could steal your dollar, feel generous and give you three popsickles, etc. see what i'm saying? if we assume we are going to get what we pay for while demaning absolute proof of it, we are being faithful. if we content ourself with reasonable proof, we can safely assume the ice-cream man is a normal guy and will give us however many popsickles we pay for. that's hope, since we have aa 'proof' (economics) that it's supposed to be like that.
economics? i'm taking microeconomics next year. i've read some books on the subject, which i must unfortunately admit seems terribly dull. it's a matter of personal opinion, i know, but i'm glad there are people who enjoy doing it so i don't have to.

oh, and stygianeyes, i recall agreeing with you almost to the point of support in the thread you mentioned. i'm no expert but i consider myself scientifically inclined and don't think i have any illusions as to what a scientific theory is.

and about your sig... i can see the irony in it now, but really, there's no need to lash out for my just asking. surely my curiosity was understandable, if not reasonable. a simple "it's sarcasm." would have sufficed.

your example does not realate to the dollar but to the charchter of the icecream man think of the dollar as a legal tender which can be exchanged for goods and services

faith is believeing somthing is true without proof

hope is wishing for an outcome

i have faith my dollar is worth some amount of icecream not knowing the prices i hope it is worth a bomb pop.

well, your dollar being worth something is contingent not only on its tender value but also on who you take it to. if someone steals your dollar, what was that dollar worth to you? nothing.

what was it worth to me or what is it worth to me, well it was worth the amount of goods or services i could have exchanged it far, it is worth a negative dollar ie the oppurtinity cost surrended in not having spent the dollar before it was stolen or iam in a worse position now economicaly/financial then i was before the theft

the system only works if the people i take the dollar to also value the dollar your getting it now, I have faith they will except it and they have faith someone else will except it ect ect ect ect