Leap of faith


 * "Right now, I can't say I know what they want from me. But I'm willing to take a leap of faith, and believe that they're guiding me. I'm asking you to take that leap with me."
 * - Benjamin Sisko

Leap of faith was a term used to describe belief in something that was empirically unknowable at the time. The meaning of the phrase originated with the Human philosopher.

Starfleet officers were trained to act scientifically and rationally based on learned knowledge and facts of the situation. Starfleet admirals generally disliked religious inclinations as an excuse to act. 

Data took a leap of faith in order to believe that he could become Human, becoming something other than he was. Benjamin Sisko entrusted the Bajoran Prophets to save his son, even as they were trying to kill the Pah-wraith that was inhabiting Jake's body. Janeway ignored her first officer and chief medical officer advice to wait for a scientific way to save Kes, and she took a leap of faith that not only would Kes be saved, but that she herself would not die. In the anti-time past, Jean-Luc Picard asked his crew to take a leap of faith and trust him, when he ordered the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) into a temporal anomaly discovered in the Devron system.