"When it is convenient.." for whom? I don't 'lump & dismiss', and I seldom meet anyone who does. THAT seems like a pretty broad generalization to me.

I think you are using a pretty loose concept of 'faith'. Faith usually refers to not even trying, to test one's beliefs. If I say I follow the Scientific Method, and try to test my hypotheses, do you call THAT 'faith'?

And that "...greater percentage of thinkers that have lived.." notion...what did THEY dismiss in order to arrive at what I assume you mean is a 'religious' position? In any case, I don't do that either.

"The same mind that will dismiss God as "unprovable" believes unswervingly in "string theory".....well, like your other examples, it seems like you are postulating extreme examples, and then ridiculing them suggesting that this is common behavior.

There are some folks who act as you say on both sides of the issue, but there are careful, thoughtful, reasonable folks who simply do NOT take their positions on faith alone, unless you hold to a pretty simplistic notion of 'faith'....but *shrug*..., it's like 'folk', I can't force anyone to accept narrow definitions.