My understanding of "Rationalism" is the effort to understand the world and the universe by the application of human reasoning powers to the evaluation of whatever reliable evidence is available. Some may prefer to call this "Rational Empiricism" but the idea that it may be possible to understand the world by pure armchair reasoning alone without examining empirical evidence is surely untenable.
By calling myself a "Rationalist" I do not claim that my abilities to reason are especially great, although I have devoted some time and effort to honing my logical and self-critical abilities. Nor do I mean to imply that anyone who fails to agree with me must be "irrational", though I do find it difficult to understand how some people are able to hold what seem to me to be mutually contradictory beliefs in mind, and still claim to be rational!
Nor does rationalism imply a lack of feeling or lack of artistic appreciation, though it may include lack of outward emotiveness.
These are notes on specific issues, that perhaps may become chapters in a book.
A number of them firat appeared on the website of Leicester Secular Society.
How Do We Know What To Do For The Best?
The God Problem
Postmodernism and the Assault on Truth
How Do We Know What We Think We Know?
Sex and Sexuality
Practical results from my efforts have been slight, but maybe it is helpful
to remind myself what I have tried so far and offer suggestions to others.
My involvement in Secularism and Humanism
Hastings Humanists
Countering Creationism
Tom Paine in Lewes
I've long been interested in the history of science, but it is only since I became involved with
Leicester Secular Society and its history, in 2000, that I began to look more deeply into the often
neglected history of radical reformers and free thinkers. In 2010 I also became incolved with the
Humanist Heritage project.
Biographical Notes on Rationalists