The essence of empirical epistemology is faith. I am sitting in my chair because I have faith that it is not going to collapse under me or instantaneously evaporate. That faith is based on empirical experience, both my own and my observations of others sitting in chairs, but if I did not have faith in the chair, I would not sit in it.
The difference between faith in Christ and faith in my chair is one of degree, not kind. I sat in my first chair because I was willing to take the risk without personal experience, on the basis of the testimony of others, and because I was in need of resting my legs; I came to Christ because I was willing to take the risk without personal experience, on the basis of the testimony of others, and because I was in need of resting my soul. It took more faith to comes to Christ than to come to the chair: as much as a grain of mustard seed.
And one more thing. Aristotle made sense until Newton came along, and Newton made sense until Einstein came along, and Einstein made sense until quantum physics came along, and quantum physics will make sense until the next here-is-how-the-universe-works comes along. But each is simply a more complex, more nuanced version of the same assertion, that the universe demonstrates orderliness and complexity at every level from subsubatomic to supercluster galactic, and the only way *that* makes sense is to accept by faith the existence of a God who made it so, who keeps it so, and who, to use an unscientific term, selflessly loves it.
Thank you for this beautiful post.