I watched the video also. I think I understand why some get so mad when anyone says that faith is based on evidence... because the entire talk was based around that being false.
The guy (sorry didn't catch his name) said that faith is belief without evidence. If this is not the case, and it is NOT the case, then every argument based on this no longer has legs!
However, I watched the whole thing, right up until the end where he also stated that he considers faith to be a form of mental illness. (I am speaking from memory; I watched it earlier this morning, so I will go back and see if this is actually what he said)
But he also said some things that are true.
Faith does not equal morality. He is correct on that. Faith does not mean that someone is good (implying then that someone who does not have faith is bad)
As for his five assertions that he made, I have never attempted to use any of them out of the ten he claimed to have (or even the two other that were brought up... well, I have said that it might not be cruel to pull someone's belief - right or wrong - out from under them and leave them with no hope, causing them pain. I mean, if their faith is strong upon the Rock who is the Truth, then this is not going to be so easily done anyway. But I was thinking about those whose belief - right or wrong - get them through the day)
I agree with him also that faith and hope are not the same things. In fact, he made some of the very same arguments that I have made talking to others. These two things are not synonymous. Faith cannot be based on hope... that just makes it another word for hope... but hope can be built upon and made sure by faith.
I LOVED the older guy who gets up at the end and makes the excellent point that his suggestion that atheists replace the word faith with 'pretending to know things you don't know' assumes that one IS pretending and deliberately deceiving. I think the speaker glossed over that most excellent point. He even said that he doesn't know how someone would prove if someone is pretending or not. So... even without knowing that this is true... he still wants to go ahead and promote this unproven statement?
Hmm.
Peace to you,
tammy