Faith "vs." Reason

“Faith and reason often clash when considering belief in what is right and, consequently, how to proceed with one’s life.” This statement represents a false choice because properly understood faith is never without reason. Faith is based upon background experience and knowledge or “properly basic belief”. Properly basic beliefs are rational beliefs that do not depend on other things to justify them. To say that there is a split between faith and reason, represented through the idea of a tragic hero and the idea of a knight of faith, would be a false dichotomy. Faith is not the absence of reason. If I were to define the tragic hero, it would be a person or a character that emerges as a hero “against all odds” but is destined for tragedy. Oedipus is a prime example of a classic tragic hero. He learns a prophecy that said he would eventually end up killing his father and marrying his own mother and tries to escape his fate. However, even after trying to escape the prophecy by fleeing his home, he ends up fighting in war, triumphing, but yet still manages to kill his father and marry his mother. So, no matter what, Oedipus was destined to fail nevertheless he was still looked upon as a hero. Now, a knight of faith can be described as a person who has assurance solely in himself and in God and who acts on his/her own accord. A good example of a knight of faith is Abraham. In the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Although Abraham loved his son dearly, he was willing to sacrifice his own son in order to obey God’s commands. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God stopped him and sent him a lamb to sacrifice instead of his son and acknowledged him for his unfaltering faith. While both of these heroes are indeed different, they do not represent the split of faith and reason because there is none. Faith and reason are not black and white; it is justified to believe in some things without proof. Oedipus could not prove that the prophecy was true, nor could Abraham prove that God told him to sacrifice his son but they both had faith based upon experience and knowledge. Prophecies were known to true, and God had yet to fail Abraham so that was reason enough for their faith. This notion is similar to how we act and think every day. For instance, we see a chair and we sit on it. We don’t know whether we will fall or if that chair will hold us up but we have faith that it will because we have sat in a chair before.
It is rational to hold onto properly basic beliefs until it is proven otherwise. Many people believe that doctors can treat us, either because a doctor simply says they are a doctor or because other people have been treated by one. If we haven’t been to a doctor for ourselves then how could we possibly know? We don’t. We cannot prove it but we have reason to believe it. Hence, my assertion that faith is not reasonless. It wouldn’t make sense for me to choose between which path I believe to be right, the tragic hero or the knight of faith, because faith and reason go hand in hand and it cannot be separated. What I do believe is that to live a meaningful life, one must live their life on faith. I lead my life based upon my faith. It is illogical to think that something can come from nothing, so I have faith.
Faith is not blind. We may seek the truth through reason and we may believe in things upon faith, but our faith is built upon reason and we decide what is right through what we believe is right. The decisions and actions we make are lots of times built on our intuition. Intuition is a product of faith.