I can certainly see that someone's attitude to reason might be an important thing, in principle. However, my general impression is that it's less important in practice than it looks: even people who speak strongly against reason being the be-all and end-all in spheres like religion don't (in my experience) seem to let that affect their willingness to be basically, well, reasonable in any tangible real-world matter. To take an extreme example, one doesn't tend to see the ignore-reason-and-follow-your-heart type of theist crossing roads without looking on the basis that God will protect them; put them in a practical situation like that and they'll look both ways just like anyone else.
Having Serious Conversations About Issues is something I enjoy - I guess it's a sort of hobby of mine, so I tend to seek out the company of people who are good at them, and perhaps this makes attitude towards reason something I'm more concerned about as a personality trait than average people are.
Although your extreme example is clearly false, I have plenty of friends who think that alternative medicine is better than clinically proven medicine, and I don't doubt that if it wasn't for the fact that in this country conventional medicine is free and alternative medicine practioners are (thankfully) good about telling people not to eschew the normal kind, that they would choose it even in situations when it could be as dangerous as crossing the road without looking.
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I can certainly see that someone's attitude to reason might be an important thing, in principle. However, my general impression is that it's less important in practice than it looks: even people who speak strongly against reason being the be-all and end-all in spheres like religion don't (in my experience) seem to let that affect their willingness to be basically, well, reasonable in any tangible real-world matter. To take an extreme example, one doesn't tend to see the ignore-reason-and-follow-your-heart type of theist crossing roads without looking on the basis that God will protect them; put them in a practical situation like that and they'll look both ways just like anyone else.
Although your extreme example is clearly false, I have plenty of friends who think that alternative medicine is better than clinically proven medicine, and I don't doubt that if it wasn't for the fact that in this country conventional medicine is free and alternative medicine practioners are (thankfully) good about telling people not to eschew the normal kind, that they would choose it even in situations when it could be as dangerous as crossing the road without looking.