Point 1 is accurate. If something is true, then it is true. Doesn't matter how you arrive at it.
Point 2 is accurate, but it doesn't go far enough. Yes, not all things that are true can be verified... but at the same time, it's impossible to know if something is true WITHOUT verification. So any 'truth' without verification can just as easily be false.
"The first point shows that faith can be used to arrive at a truth (whether that truth is "reliable" or not is a strange question since, if it is true, then it must be reliable even if it is not verifiable)."
But of course this isn't what I said. I never said that when you use faith to arrive at a truth that the truth is unreliable. What I'm asserting is that as a MEANS OF ARRIVING AT TRUTH, faith is unreliable. Yes, you can have faith in something and it can turn out that your faith was justified, because what you had faith in can turn out to be true. But that DOES NOT mean that everything anyone has faith in is true. People can have faith in all sorts of demonstrably FALSE things. For instance, one man can have absolute faith that it will rain tomorrow, Another person might have absolute faith that it won't. Whether it rains tomorrow, one of them will be right and the other will be wrong. BOTH used faith to arrive at their 'truths', so how could anyone conclude that faith is a RELIABLE means of arriving at the truth?
"The sword maker learned from a teacher. He can't verify that someone else doesn't make stronger swords than he makes. He can't even verify that there isn't some other molecular configuration that would be attainable and superior."
EXACTLY! Without some kind of verification the sword maker nor ANYONE ELSE knows for certain that HIS process is the absolute BEST process for making swords. As good as his process may be, until he's tested EVERY OTHER POSSIBLE METHOD, he has no idea whether or not HIS process truly does make the BEST steel. Is it POSSIBLE that his teacher stumbled upon the absolute best way to make steel? Yes, it's possible... but no one has any way to determine if it actually is until all other methods have been tested and discarded. All the sword maker can know for certain is that the method he uses is the best he's come across THUS FAR, all based on his previous experience. .