I have been told that rationalism, in excluding the very concept of faith, excludes courage as a consequence. Accurate reflection reveals that the very opposite is true, unless courage is conflated with stupidity. Courage is a commitment to doing something even when one experiences fears about the matter, not a reluctance to immerse oneself in rationalism. Living rationally can necessitate confronting things that are discomforting, or perhaps even quite upsetting. Faith is a blind leap in an arbitrary direction.
Faith is not an indicator of courage, but of stupidity (by faith I mean belief in an unproven thing, not commitment to something supported by evidence--which is not belief that the unproven thing is true). It does not require courage for simplistic people to settle for a worldview that is unverifiable or unverified. Some might find faith far more comfortable than the process of rejecting assumptions, identifying fallacies, and autonomously reasoning.
There is no courage in faith unless one holds to faith in something in the presence of doubts, but this is a pathetic form of courage, for it involves maintaining a worldview that is contrary to rationality. The deepest of courage pertains to pursuing truth even when it is painful or difficult. This shows that one has a genuine devotion to knowing reality for reality's sake, not merely in order to appease existential fears. It is easy to remain with ideas that one subjectively finds comfortable; moving beyond that realm of comfort can be a terrifying ordeal.
Confronting and accepting truth can be one of the most difficult things about human existence. Truth is not always pleasant, fulfilling, or simple, but it always remains the truth despite this. Rationalism, therefore, cannot exclude courage; on the contrary, embracing rationalism can be a sign of the deepest courage. Though difficulties can be overcome, not every rationalist finds truth an easy thing to consistently live for.
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