I think the problem here is a lack of definition of what faith is. There are two types of faith.

There is faith as it pertains to belief, religious in particular. In this sense faith is believing in something despite the fact that there is no evidence nor any good reason to believe in that thing. If there were evidence or at least a good, valid reason that has logic and rationality behind it, it would be enough just to believe it. You wouldn't need faith. Faith becomes necessary when reason fails. It's pretending to know things you clearly don't know. To me this sort of faith is not only intellectually vacuous but it's dangerous for reasons I've covered earlier in the thread. Basically this quote sums it up nicely. "I don't know if faith can move mountains, but I've seen it bring down skyscrapers."

The other type of faith is what andi was talking about. Having belief in yourself, your ability to overcome adversities and troubles. Belief in those around you to come through for you. This type of faith is a very different kind to the first type, as this meaning in a lot of ways is evidence based. Maybe you have belief in yourself and your abilities to overcome hard times because you've been through those times before and you have a reason to believe you can through any hard time the future may hold. Or maybe you know others who have lived through hard times and you know of the human capacity to overcome challenges.
Faith in others comes from experience that a particular person can come through for you. I doubt anybody would trust a complete stranger with the welfare of their new born baby purely on faith. People develop trust over time and this builds this kind of faith.
I guess this kind of faith is analogous to hope or positivity. Sometimes hope can let you down badly but when you're going through difficult times, hope (or this kind of faith) can be the only thing to keep you alive. Having trust and belief (call it faith if you want) in yourself and others is wonderful and inspiring and uplifting.

But this type of faith is very different because you're not claiming to know things about the world when you really don't know. You're claiming to know things about yourself and the human potential (which I believe is limitless) and you really are the only one who knows what you are truly capable of achieving.

So like andi, I definitely have that sort of faith, though I wouldn't call it that as it has a different meaning from the most widely understood meaning of the word, and I think Dawn (and I say this with no disrespect) that you are mixing the two meanings up and that is where the confusion is coming from.