Brainstorm

[Excited Penguin]

I'm sure we, as self-identified rationalists, also have some beliefs that need challenging(or at least some of us do, even if maybe to a lesser extent than a religious person would). Smoking is a good example of that. But there are countless others.

I have plenty of delusions - it's a side effect of how the emotional brain works - some of which I'm more mindful of than others, and some of which I use rational thinking to challenge and overcome and some of which I don't. But I only challenge them when I'm ready to, and that readiness comes from within. So I don't identify as a rationalist like Spock... I wouldn't want to be that because the emotional brain is just as beautiful in my eyes as the logical brain... and the two parts complement each other perfectly. So rationality is a means to correct delusions and without it we'd be confined to living them unchanged, as is presumably the case in the animal kingdom. But I don't see rationality alone as the be all and end all of human existence.

Here's the definition I was using:

rationalist - someone who believes that ideas and actions should be based on practical reasons and knowledge, rather than on emotions or religious beliefs

Do you still not consider yourself a rationalist, even by that definition? Do you perhaps think some ideas and actions should be based on emotions or religious beliefs? Could you give me any examples of such?