Reason vs Faith - The False Dilemma

Ah, thank goodness! Not a year has passed since my last post! In this post, I want to focus my attention into the apparent issue of faith being irrational. How many things I missed since my death! How many intriguing and, indeed, strange events! One of such is the age of The Enlightenment, which I recently found out about. It is called the age of reasoning, where reason is the primary source of legitimacy and authority. While reason is important in  finding the truth, faith is not contradicted by reason, but  is beyond reason.

In fact, I will go as far as to say that reason depends on faith! Yes, faith is the base, or the foundation of, reason. How is that the case? The first thing we need to realize is that we have no reasons to trust that our rationale is not deceiving us. How are we to know that we can trust our power of reasoning? How can we be sure that what we think as rational, is not really something else that turns out to be irrational? If you try to defend reason, by the use of a demonstration, you have to use reasoning. Employ a syllogism where you try to prove reason, and you undoubtedly, through the use of formal logic, end up using reason. First principles by definition are propositions or assumptions that cannot be derived by another proposition or assumption. Godel's Incompleteness Theorem proved that no system of axioms can prove its own validity.

What is the problem of using reason to prove reason? It is circular, and this commits the logical fallacy of "petitio principii" or, to use a modern term "begging the question". It is like trying prove to a judge that you are telling the truth about an event by saying that what you are saying is true! Good luck with that in your next court!

So we can't escape faith, even if we fancy ourselves so rational, that we think that we are beyond such nonsenses as faith. Oh, how our intellectual snobbery can turn the joke on us! It is not we, rational beings as we are, that are beyond faith, but it is faith that is beyond reason! Faith does not contradict reason, but as the supporter of reason, it is beyond reason. A building's foundation is not in war with the building, but it happily supports the building itself, and is the main thing that keeps it from collapsing. It is so with faith. Faith is the foundation which supports reason, and only through passing through this foundation we can make use of the building of reason, and so reach to the top of legitimacy and authority. In order to use reason, we must accept that our rationale is not deceiving us, and the only way we can do that is through  our good ol' pal faith. It is clear then, that the so called "age of Enlightenment" had it all wrong. It is not reason that is our source of legitimacy and authority, but it is, by necessity, faith and reason.- ChristoPhilos.