The following are exerpts from the writings of Carl Sagan, one of the 20th Century's most persuasive defenders of "rationality."   Many of his writings are exemplars of the reducitonist viewpoint.  His book, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York: Random House, 1996, is a sweeping declaration that humanity must not regress backwards to beliefs that our primitive ancestors can be excused for having, but to instead rededicate ourselves to the embrace of scientific rationalism.  Sagan was a 20th Century Enlightenment Philosophe.
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SAGAN EXCERPTS

"...organisms die but their genes pass on - often mutated and redistributed, it is true, but genes nevertheless; and it is difficult, therefore, to escape the conclusion that the design of the organism is merely to provide for gene multiplication and survival..."  Carl Sagan, "Radiation and the Origin of the Gene," Evolution, January, 1957.  [This quote is one of the earliest public statements of its kind, similar to Richard Dawkins' declaration (Selfish Gene, 1976) that an animal is a "lumbering machine" created for the purpose of carrying its genes into the future.]

"In a very real sense human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nucleic acids. ... We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids."  Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1973.  [A restatement of the above thought.]

"A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of  reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge...   In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The universe is much bigger than out prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed"? Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way...  A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge." Pale Blue Dot, Random House, New York, 1994, p52   [These quotes found at the offsite URL:  http://members.aol.com/pantheism0/atheists.htm]

From the book Carl Sagan: A Life, by Keay Davidson, 1999 (New York: WIley and Sons), the following conversation is described between Sagan and Timothy Ferris, as told to Davidson by Ferris (page 414):  "Ferris mentioned a scholar who once told science historian Joseph Needham: 'Joseph, to have a liberal arts education you must be familiar with five fields: science, philosophy, religion, art and history.  If you are familiar with those five fields, you'll have a good education and you can go on to many other things.  But if you are missing any one of those five you will lack a proper liberal education.'  Needham himself added: 'I see no need to unify them.'  Instantly, Sagan replied: 'Well, three of the five are reducible to science.  And the other one [religion] is a delusion."

External link to Sagan on Pseudoscience  (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/town/saghigh.htm)

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This site opened:  November 26, 1999.  Last Update: February 16, 2000