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Please don't say stuff like "I have full faith" when it comes to astrobiology :(. It's really tough for us to even get funding for a lot of these missions, especially now that NASA is being pushed away from astronomy/science and into crewed spaceflight, and the added pressure of some people's "full faith" is really not helpful, as well-intentioned as it may be.

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First, faith doesn't have to be religious. You can have faith in something without having to bring in god.

But secondly, even if you do, it's a positive feeling, as long as it doesn't replace thinking and acting. Which this comment clearly doesn't.

It's not clear to me inteleng is objecting to any possible religious connotations, so much as saying that astrobiology's success is far from assured and that much work needs to be done to prevent progress from being derailed.

Don't you think Astrobiology is reliant on peoples faith that interesting results will follow from the capital investments required? I think thats one of the main things that are pushing astrobiology forward. If no one gave a fuck, or no one had any faith in the field, there would be no capital investments. I honestly don't understand the sentiment in the comment - or why you would caution against having faith?

We have faith that we'll do our best to do good science. That's the extent of it.

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