A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, a young George Michael would rise to fame by telling us why he had faith. The inimitable Immanuel Kant also believed we needed faith in the fruition of our moral efforts. George needed faith to get over heartbreak, Kant needed it to give a foundation to ethics, and it seems like we too need at least a little faith to get on with our lives. Yes, I'm an atheist, and yes, I said it: we need faith.

Faith is useful when it is justified. But there are different ways to justify faith. Let's consider some here.

For one, we can probably agree that faith in a doctor is useful. It is useful because it allows us to heal without needing to understand every detail of the medicine or treatment we are prescribed. Of course, we should have an idea of what the medicine we take does and how the treatment is helpful, but we don't need to know every detail. That's the doctor's job.

Goats sacrificed to fix Nepal jet

A goat. File photo

A goat offering is a holy act for Hindu devotees

Nepal's state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft.

Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport.

The offering was made to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company's planes.

The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong.

Borrowed from Over-Compensating Comics

To me, Plato's 'Euthyphro' still gives us the quintessential outline of why any God must have been made up by humans. The idea is that, unlike all other objective facts that we know about the world, for some reason it's up to humanity to specify all of God's attributes a priori, or by definition. Although Socrates was talking to Euthyphro about 'piety,' any suggested attribute of God can be equally called under question in the same way. We define 'the sun' to be something like 'the fiery ball in the sky,' but this definition is always open to revision based on further investigation in a way that the concept of God is not. And the (epistemic) difference between these two concepts is very important. Consider the following: