What about the difference between trust and faith? I ran a video feed
from one campus to another for an instructor teaching a course in
pre-stressed concrete. He said that the Iowa Department of
Transportation believed that some 80 percent of bridges in the state of
Iowa were below the state's safety standards, and yet oil tankers and
all kinds of other trucks and vehicles drove over them every day. He
encouraged in his students "trust" in only some 20 percent of Iowa
bridges. But what of the drivers? Can we say they have "trust" or
must we say they have "faith?"
I recall the instructor saying that the standards for "trust" were that
only one of three pre stressed concrete supports could have failed to
maintain its stresses. When it comes to engineering I am a layman, but
if every third concrete support is just decorative...
How do trust and faith differ? If they are both just part of a search
for homeostasis are they different enough to consider separately in
terms of design theory?
I trust science to discover factual information - global warming, the
dangers of our reliance on oil for example.
I have faith in design to create effective solutions to these problems
that will be socially embraced.
Best,
Alan
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