When the word, "faith," is mentioned God may be the first thought that comes to mind. However the set of things that pertain to faith is much more than God, because faith is simply belief without proof.
People have faith that: global warming is real; taxing the wealthy will help others; college degrees are needed; gun laws prevent crime; food stamps help promote independence; the police will protect the public; others will help the poor; or electric cars are more environmentally friendly than gas powered cars.
Many of the things mentioned above are key issues for government action, but if faith is belief without proof then it should be apparent there is no justification for government to act on these issues. Moreover it should be noted that even though God and the other issues mentioned both require faith to believe in, they also each have a different element of faith. With God there is a personal faith. Someone's faith in God may be described to someone else, but that someone else will never have the same type of experience with God. On the other hand the other issues above share a public faith.
For example: we all experience the same weather; we all use the same currency; we can all strive to achieve the same college degrees; we can all own the same types of guns; recipients use the same food stamps (it's a form of currency); we share the same police officers; we all passed the same person asking for money on the side of the street; one chevy volt was built the same as the other.
There is nothing wrong with public faith or personal faith, it's just a title we can group them in. In fact faith is a very important part to human evolution. Faith is responsible for human ambitions, desires, and goals. All these things may lead to achievements. Someone who has ambitions to achieve something, such as, circumnavigating the globe, harnessing electricity, building skyscrapers in the clouds, or traveling to the moon. None the of the previous mentioned goals were known to be possible at their respective inceptions, in other words there was no proof these goals could be accomplished. However faith kept the human spirit persistent and these goals were eventually accomplished. Although since these goals were initially fueled by faith that means each one of them falls into the subsets of public faith or personal faith.
They all have potential of being a member of public faith, but only one goal, traveling to the moon, was fueled by public faith. Circumnavigating the globe is credited to Magellan. Allesandro Volta, is credited with making the first battery. Lastly Carnegie made steel cheaply and skyscrapers started to define the skylines. All of these being fueled by faith means there was uncertainty in the beginning, but since these goals were accomplished their faithful ties were cut. But the important thing to know is that, regardless of which type of faith fueled the goal, there was uncertainty in the beginning.
Now that it is apparent that goals fueled by faith are uncertain, it should also be apparent that government actions fueled by faith are uncertain as well. Moreover, all government goals fueled by faith are in the category of public faith, because we all share the same government. So it should also easily be understood that a government making policies about: global warming, redistribution, college degrees, gun laws, food stamps, police protection, funding the poor, subsidizing green energy; is an uncertain government.
So is an uncertain government an effective government? If such a government were to answer yes, then it would be an uncertain yes, and a possible no. If such a government were to answer no, then it would be an uncertain no, and a possible yes. Such a government's answer is no different than a guess, and a guess is essentially leaving things to chance. However, rolling dice for solutions is certainly not effective.
