Blind Faith

My last real post was on the irrationality of atheism. I feel in fairness, I need to address blind faith as well.
The funny thing about faith is that true faith necessitates that all you can honestly state is "I believe X." Faith, as faith, is different than knowledge. And from a purely philosophical and psychological point of view, the concept of knowledge is even a bit shaky.
But before I delve too much into that, I think it is important to note that faith should not be blind. No one should ever take the word of their parents or teachers as the word of God. Faith is the kind of substance that continually needs to be tried. This is how theology evolves.
It is all very well and good to believe in something, but it is important to know what it is that you believe in, and why it is that you believe that. For this reason, theology has changed in every single century for the last two thousand years. And within the last century, when humanism presented its case before faith, many theologians stepped up to greet the challenge and the emphases of the twentieth century reflect this.
Also, it is important to have people to look to for faith. Augustine makes it clear that the authority that Christians look toward helps direct them and gets them through the more puzzling aspects of being a believer. Authorities show the way and answer difficult questions. However, in today's world, there are so many different authorities saying so many different things, that it is important to be aware of what they are actually saying.
The biggest problem that I do see in people's faith is that they often take faith itself as the authority. It seems that many people follow the mantra "Well, I believe it, so it must be so." This is one of the greatest follies to which we as believers can fall. Simple belief in something does not make it so. It makes it even less so if there is no evidence to reinforce one's beliefs. I might believe that little leprechauns are stealing my socks from the dryer, but unless I can offer a plausible explanation, or at least one that is not completely preposterous, then my faith has no merit. Belief in a god, however, is plausible, as illustrated by Aquinas' defense from Sufficient Reason, which states that if something is, then there must be a cause for it. The cause for our universe can be a god, especially the way that philosophers and theologians account for the creation.
A quick anecdote will illustrate my point about faith. Growing up Mormon, my friends and family always encouraged us to "develop" what they called "a testimony." Essentially, a Mormon's testimony is his specific set of beliefs, most of which have very specific properties to them, such as the belief that Joseph Smith was God's prophet, and most of which are stated as matters of fact. The way a Mormon will usually present his testimony is like this, "I know that X" where X is something like "Joseph Smith was a prophet," "The Book of Mormon is true" or "Jesus is God's only Son." None of these things are reasonable to know, the way that most people talk about knowing anything. I can neither vouch for Joseph Smith's conversations with God, nor can I verify the authenticity of the Book of Mormon or even Jesus' actual life. All of these things must be taken on faith. However, Mormons not only generally state these beliefs as facts, but they use them as arguments for their positions.
But they are not alone. There are several faiths which encourage strict adherence to faith and reject normal methods of questioning or investigating. These groups discourage me. These faiths make me depressed about the state of faith in America. If we blindly follow what our leaders say, no matter how horrific it truly is, then we are no better than many of the nonbelievers say that we are.
But, I do also believe that we need something to believe in. It is perfectly fine to believe that in the hereafter, there will be a glorious reward for those who live righteous lives. It is normal to hope for a greater future, or a justification of souls. However, we cannot allow this faith to cause us to lose track of what it really is that we believe in.