Reagarding Faith......

[Sacred Fool]

But I strongly feel that we must still believe in something. If we don't make this choice of belief consciously, choosing the best and most wholesome of beliefs, our minds will make this choice for us, unconsciously, often times with a belief of less virtue, due to the necessity of the human mind to have a filter (any filter) through which to interpret life.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness in your post.  I think the daylight between your view and that expressed in the Q'uo quotation has to do with, as you point out, the human mind.  The mind is an organ which largely assesses quantity and probability and, as you mentioned, practicality.  The faith Q'uo refers to does not live there.  It does not register in the human mind the way light waves don't register in your inner ear.  Instead, this kind of faith--not belief--is reached through through the non-physical heart, and until you look for it there, you'll have a very hard time tracking it.

On a personal level, there was a place upon my path where I dug enough into my own deep, deep internal distortions and realized that I was protecting myself from love, and that this greatly affected my presence in the world.  I felt like I had been a sort of puppet master, sending myself out into social situations, but never committing myself to being fully present because I was guarded against being hurt because I couldn't handle the free flow of love. 

After spending some time working my way through that and learning to handle a somewhat increased flow of love, my internal "understanding" of this faith thing became more apparent, became more real, as opposed to fantasized.  The freer flow of love itself tipped the balance and offered me this further level of an experience life enhanced with faith.......faith in love, not in thought.

I hope that helps give you some ideas for pathways to sniff out.