Hank, you're the rationalist.

You know, determinedly rationalistic, clear and concise.

The only magic element of a rationalist world.

After the Enlightenment, the rationalists easily adoptedreligious universalism.

But in the cities of the Ganges plain here in India in the Fifth Century B.C., a host of thinkers arose: rationalists, skeptics, atheists.

Halappanavar’s death resulted from the fanatical, atavisticbehavior of a Western theocracy, while Indian protesters andlawmakers have upheld the scientific, rationalist ethos of the Enlightenment.

As well as the charisma of his heritage, Fadlallah also had tremendous presence. He was highly regarded as a spiritual and worldly-wise cleric, a rationalistic and progressive thinker, a critical political analyst, and as an empathetic man with a good sense of humour.

We respect those who believe in heaven just as much as those who do not, and we strive to ensure that each person — whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha'i, atheist, agnostic, freethinker, freemason or rationalist — feels happy to be living in France, feels free and feels that their beliefs, values and origins are respected.

The French nineteenth-century statesman Alphonse de Lamartine wrote an ode to European unity along rationalist lines,entitled the Marseillaise of Peace: “ In the course ofenlightenment, the world rises to unity/ I am the fellow citizen ofevery thinking person/ Truth is my country.”