Perhaps I misunderstand, but I think what you’re calling “faith,” is simply confidence level. Renaming it “faith,” I think, is going to muddle the terminology more than it assists the ability to argue the point.
Let’s take your view of evolution: You’re saying you accept it based 1% on faith. I would say that I am 99% confident of it (assuming your view), which has the advantage that doubts that enter into the analysis would reduce my confidence level, but not increase my faith level, which would remain at zero.
Nor do I believe that this renaming helps us meet the divergent views between the faithful and the evidence-based. To give credence to faith as a necessary filler of doubt doesn’t help move people toward evidence, in my view. Further, it is exactly the sort of logic the faithful cite—science is just faith in something else.
Indeed, that’s counterintuitive. I believe it to be counterintuitive because it is incorrect. Amanda Knox was a roommate of Meredith Knox’s; the initial likelihood of her being responsible is raised by that fact alone. It is normal for police to question motives of people close to the decedent, and it is good practice.
Suppose Hubby ends up shot a few dozen times as he is bicycling home from work. Wife has an alibi—she was 30 miles away, on film, at the time. But wife, after 20 minutes of questioning, confesses to giving $3,000 in cash she had squirreled away to someone (a description, but no name and he’s gone) to shoot Hubby, that she gave him Hubby’s route, and she was mad at Hubby for his affairs, affairs investigators later confirm.
Is the confession noise? We have no physical evidence. That’s somewhat dissimilar to your assertion, I understand. Let’s take it back a step:
Let’s keep Hubby shot dead, but Wife does not confess. However, she has a $45,000 withdrawal the day before. She says it was for “baking supplies,” but she lost it somewhere and can’t find the cash. She says that she dearly loved Hubby, but she has dates from match.com that she set up the week before. When the cops get there to tell her about Hubby 15 minutes after the shooting, all of Hubby’s clothes and property are being placed in a Goodwill truck, and Hubby’s car is on sale at E-bay and there’s champagne on ice.
I don’t think that’s noise.
And I don’t think Amanda Knox’s behavior is valueless noise. The argument made that the lack of physical evidence is far more telling may be sound (depending on the actual evidence), but the behavior is evidence.
Potential Bias Alerts: I’m a prosecutor. I have had my cases dissected in the press (one case may end up on TV) and not always accurately. Circumstantial cases with a high degree of detail are often difficult for the press to get right, in my experience. Highly-charged sex cases are often difficult for the press to get right, in my view. I have no experience with Italian authorities, and probably impute similarities to American justice that do not exist. I do give some value to the jury’s verdict, because I do not believe that the time I’ve spent looking at the evidence is anywhere near sufficient.