"What cornerstone of Rand's faith" are you referencing? Since Rand's philosophy is Objectivism, "faith" is not in the vocabulary. I can't quite get my head around your point.
What “cornerstone of Rand’s faith” ...
The cornerstone to which I was referring, is that "every man is an end in himself...." That's barely defensible for those who have no children (and no social contacts whatever) -- but here in the real world, we are in many ways a means to our children's ends, and morally obligated to be so. (See the cultural toxicity of the inner cities for a practical example of what happens when parents fail in that regard...) Her philosophy quite simply falls apart, on that point alone.
Also in that vein, Rand says that "reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears." She goes on to say that Man's "reason," applied to reality, is "his only guide to action."
Fine: and thus her philosophy is required to cope with what reality tells us. And one of the problems with Rand's objectivism is that it does not consider the evidence in favor of Evolution. An evolution-based reality paints a very different picture of "moral behavior" than Rand came up with -- including, "we are a means to our children's end."
Since Rand's philosophy is Objectivism, "faith" is not in the vocabulary. I can't quite get my head around your point.
Yeah, and the MSM claim to be "objective," too. Rand very clearly operated on faith -- try proving, from first principles, any of her basic premises. I'll guarantee you can't do it without having to make a lot of unfounded assumptions.
No, Rand operated on faith; and the chief characteristic of her faith was that she could define an "objective" philosophy independent of any supernatural intervention.