"Hi Scot, May I suggest that you read: MARVIN HARRIS's two brilliarn books for the rationality discussion: COWS, PIGS, WARS & WITCHES, and its sequel, CANNIBALS & KINGS. This will re-focus the discussion in part to an anthropological paradigm, rather than the less useful philosophical/idealist template. Marvin Harris developed the very powerful heuristic tool of CULTURAL MATERIALISM. His two books read like novels and change everyone who's ever read them."