I've long had that opinion - it is faith, in my mind. It's very logical faith, but faith nonetheless. Not in science exactly, but in the morals, honesty and competency in the results of those performing the science. It's faith that if i was to become an expert in the field, i'd be able to recreate their exact results and deem them correct.
Is this unsound in your mind? I'm fairly anti-religious but i have no problem describing my belief in science based outcomes as faith. It doesn't feel reductive, it feels honest - to me. It takes a leap of.. something, if not faith, to trust the results of results of humans. Some science is bad, some is good, but often you lack the expertise to determine which is which. So you logically go with the common assertions and proceed from there. I do think it's logical, but i don't think that precludes it from also being faith.
How would you phrase / reason through it?