Is Faith a Cop-out?

This morning there was a "quote of the day" on my iGoogle page that I take issue with:

"Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits" (Dan Barker).

How do you know that this is true?
By reason?
How do you know that reason is a valid foundation for truth?
By reason?

Right.

Faith is an absolutely necessary part of any philosophical position. I discussed this in my previous post. Ironically, it appears as though this quotation is from a book entitled Losing Faith in Faith. I think Mr. Barker should question the amount of faith he has placed in reason.